


The Mummy

by panna_acida



Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, The Mummy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-26
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2018-12-20 02:27:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 20,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11911296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panna_acida/pseuds/panna_acida
Summary: If I could raise my belovedfrom his place in hell,together, we would be an unstoppableinfection upon this world.The Apocalypse.The End.





	1. Past: THEBES- 2,134 B.C

**Author's Note:**

> A Mummy AU no asked for, but here it is.  
> Also thank a lot to my amazing beta ( [@Bill_Longbow](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Bill_Longbow/pseuds/Bill_Longbow)) for making this fic understandable to everyone... bless ç_ç ♥
> 
> totally forgot to add that i will follow the movie (the one with Brendan Farser) storyline

**CHAPTER 01: THEBES - 2,134 B.C**

 

 _Thebes. City of the Living._  
_Crown jewel of Pharaoh Seti the First._  
_Home of Mar-Ga-Ret, Highest Priestess of Osiris, Keeper of the Dead._  
_Birthplace of Ste-Phan._  
_Pharaoh's Liege._  
_No man or woman was allowed to touch him._

 

A young man walked inside a foyer, with only a loin cloth covering his middle, his entire body painted like Egyptian royalty. He is a sight to behold. He is Ste-Phan.

The young man made his way through to an ornate sanctuary, and the door closed behind him thanks to a priest. He stopped just in front of a strange, beautiful woman covered in tattoos, marking her as the keeper of the dead. The Highest Priestess of Osiris. Mar-Ga-Ret.

 

 _But love made them sacrifice everything._  
_Even their life._

 

Mar-Ga-Ret closed the gap between their bodies and touched the man in front of her with reverence, she pulled him closer and kissed the young man, smudging the paint covering his body. At that moment the doors slammed open and the Pharaoh strode in, angrily, marching towards the young man.

“What are you doing here?” The Pharaoh demanded, letting his eyes roam over his liege, who is trying to looks inconspicuous. The Pharaoh’s eyes landed on the smudged paint.

“WHO DID THIS!?” He screamed, a movement behind him made him turn around just in time to see Mar-Ga-Ret take his sword with a big smile on her face.

“My priest?” the Pharaoh asked, shocked, not understanding what’s happening. Behind him Ste-Phan took a hidden dagger, and stabbed the Pharaoh, at the same time the priestess did, killing the Pharaoh.

“Pharaoh's bodyguards!” some of the priests screamed.

Mar-Ga-Ret and Ste-Phan, stopped and looked at each other.

“You must go. Save yourself. Only you can resurrect me.” Ste-Phan pointed out, turning around when he hears the guards enter the sanctuary.

Mar-Ga-Ret waited a few more seconds before turning around and running away, face marked with tears.

“My body is no longer his temple” Ste-Phan declared as he stabbed himself, making Mar-Ga-Ret stop and turn around, only to be hustled by her priests outside, face morphed in a horrible silent scream.

\----

Mar-Ga-Ret led a silent procession across the dunes during the night, carrying with her the body of her lover. Body mummified, vital organs removed and placed in sacred canopic jars.

Inside an old temple, Mar-Ga-Ret, filled with dread, read from a book made completely of gold. The Book of the Living.

 

 _The Book of The Living contained_  
_sacred incantations that would send the evil_ _  
_ dead on a journey into the dark underworld.

 

As the chanting picked up, a strange light starts to form around Ste-Phan’s body, a gush of wind rushed among the priests kneeling around the body of Ste-Phan, and fear took hold when the body of the man began to rise.

At a sudden scream everything stopped and Ste-Phan’s body fell back on the stone, just in time for the Pharaoh’s guard to blast in and kill every priest. They take Mar-Ga-Ret with them, despite her fighting bravely.

\----

Because of this big crime she committed Mar-Ga-Ret was condemned to endure the Hom-Dai. The worst of all ancient curses, one so horrible, that it had never been bestowed before.

 

 _If I could raise my beloved_  
_from his place in hell,_  
_together, we would be an unstoppable_ _  
_ infection upon this world.

 _The Apocalypse._ _  
_ _The End._


	2. 1925 - Hamunaptra

**CHAPTER 02: 1925 - Hamunaptra**

  
  
Under the scorching hot sun, hundreds of French foreign legionnaires, hidden behind old ruins, were preparing for battle. All of them ready with rifle and gun… All of them except one.  
  
“Congratulations, you just got promoted” Rumlow’s voice reached Barnes ears, with a little smirk playing on his face.  
  
“What the…” Barnes screeched, turning around to stare at their commander flying away from the battle. “Fuck”, Bucky turned back to just stare at the opposite army, loading his rifle.  
“EVERYONE READY AT MY COMMAND!” he yelled, turning around to Rumlow who now crouched near him.  
“Are you with me?” Barnes asked in a low voice, staring at the other’s profile.  
  
“Me?” Rumlow asked back in a mocking tone, before turning and facing Barnes completely. “Always my friend” Reassured him, with a little smile adorning his face, before turning again toward the tuareg army now starting their charge.  
  
“WAIT” Barnes screamed.  
  
“WAIT...” Barnes screamed again directing the rifle toward his target, taking one last glance at the men around him.  
  
“FIRE, FIRE!!!” Barnes screamed. In that moment all hell broke loose. The horde of horses was pounding, the sound resonating among the ruins. A giant column of sand rising higher and higher in their wake. In that moment Rumlow just turned around and ran away from the battle, followed by a group of legionnaires, while the other men all started firing.  
“I knew this was gonna be a lousy day.” Barnes mumbled with a bullet perched between his teeth. He rose from his position and followed his men, running and firing at the same time.  
  
Barnes saw the mysterious horsemen, spin off their mounts and crash to the sand. In no time at all the entire Tuareg force was plowing into the ruins and through the legionnaires. Barnes grabbed the barrel of his rifle and started CLUBBING riders off their steeds, fighting like a possessed man.  
  
Rumlow, on the other hand had fallen face first in the sand and tried to crawl back up, and away from the battle, toward a temple gate.  
  
“That fucking bastard” Barnes groaned, loading the gun and firing at the Tuareg reaching for him. He fired. And fired, until his gun ran empty. He had no choice but turn around and run in the same direction as Rumlow, who had reached the temple gate and started to close the door behind him.  
  
“What the fuck” Barnes screamed staring at Rumlow while running. “Wait you fucking bastard, don’t you dare… DON’T YOU DARE!” But the door closed in front of his face with a hollow huff, making the man slam against the solid door.  
  
“I'm gonna get you for this!” he spat out with venom towards the closed door. Barnes turned around and bolted off away from the entrance, running for his life. He wove through the ruins, and heard the enemy getting closer and closer. Barnes finally stopped in front of a dead end, spinning around and closing his eyes ready to face death. After a few seconds where nothing happened he slowly peeled open his right eye. At that moment the horses went crazy.  
Some of them reared up, throwing their riders to the ground, others just snorted and screeched in fear before turning around and running away.  
  
Barnes just stood there, stunned, staring at the retreating figures. Trying to understand what happened, he turned around and faced the statue of Anubis shattered and half covered in sand.  
  
Suddenly the sand under his feet started to shift, making the man jump on the spot and move away always keeping his eyes on the moving sand. It continued to shift like a giant snake moved under it, forming lines and shapes… drawing a picture. Barnes ran off, only slowing down when he was outside the city ruin. He looked up in time to stare at a line of black clad figures staring back at him from distance, before turning again and moving away from his spot in the middle of nowhere.


	3. PRESENT DAY: CAIRO MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES

**CHAPTER 03: PRESENT DAY: CAIRO MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES**

  
  
Rows upon rows of of towering bookshelves filled with literature on the antiquities.  
  
Standing on top of a tall ladder Tony, short curly hair, big black framed glasses, stared at the book row in front of him before huffing and turning a book over in his hand.  
  
“AH!” Tony groaned, shaking his head. “Tuthmosis? .... Now how did you get up here?” He mumbled turning around and searching for the right shelf to put the book on…  
“There you are” a wide smile blossomed on his face. Slowly and carefully, so to not lose his balance, Tony looked behind him where the books with the letter “T” were situated. Tony looked down to see if his effort to climb down the stairs and move the ladder a bit. “Nah”, he decided. Very carefully, he took the book and tried to reach across the aisle with it, but it was too far.  He stretched a bit more, fingertip barely holding onto the ladder, nearly there...  
  
But then the ladder pulled away from the shelf, making Tony yelp. He let the book fall with a loud thud on the floor, to grab the top of the ladder with both hands. He swayed a little before the ladder come to a stop in the middle between the two aisles. “Oh” he breathed out looking down and then up at the shelves around him, when the ladder started to move again, swinging left and right. In an attempt to regain his balance he started stilt walking around the isle before making a 180 turn and losing his balance completely. Making the ladder fall on the first bookshelf cutting his little walk short.  
  
“Oh dear” Tony breathed out, closing his eyes, before the bookshelf he crashed into started to tremble under him. The entire bookcase crashed into the next one, then into the next, like giant dominoes, making thousand of books clatter on the floor. Everything finally ended when the last shelf crashed into a wall.  
  
Tony peeled open his eyes looking around him at the destruction he just created.  
  
“Oops?” he mumbled scratching his neck, just when the curator of the museum entered the room.  
  
“What?” the curator looked around him “What just happened here?” Yinsen asked, arms open wide in shock.  
  
“Sorry, it was an accident”  mumbled Tony, starting to add up the books near his feet.  
  
“No!” Yinsen interjected “No, when Ramesses destroyed Syria, it was an accident. You are a catastrophe! Remind me again why i put up with you?” end shaking his head staring at the chaos.  
  
Tony turned around clenching his fist at his side.  
  
“You put up with me, because I can read and write ancient Egyptian, decipher hieroglyphs and hieratic, and I'm the only person within a thousand miles who knows how to properly code and catalogue this library!” he stated between gritted teeth.  
  
“No” Yinsen said, “I put up with you because your parents were our finest patrons. Allah rest their soul.” he raised his arm and pointed a finger at the boy “Now clean up this mess” and with that he turned around and left Tony alone.  
  
A noise made Tony jump up, clutching the books he’d just retrieved to his chest, making him lower the book and take a torch from the wall.  
  
“Hello?” he asked in a low voice, poking his head in the near gallery. No one answered “Mohamad? Abdul? Bob?”  
  
Tony walked through the stacks and entered the gallery, moving between treasures and plunder from the middle Kingdom. The atmosphere in the room was quite dark and gloomy, making Tony uncomfortable. He kept walking between the treasure though when the noise made him jump again and turn around just in time to see a hideous rotted mummy sit up and screech at him.  
  
Tony screamed, clutching his chest terrified.  
  
A laugh started to rise and Clint emerged from the sarcophagus, hugging the mummy and laughing half drunk.  
  
“You…” Tony pointed his finger at the other man “YOU...!” he shouted and marched toward his brother, going to slap him on his head.  
  
“Drunkard? Fool? Hawk-ass? Please call me something original this time”. Clint said raising from his position wobbling, still giggling.  
  
“You don’t have any respect for the dead!”   
  
“Right now I only wish to join them”  
  
“Don’t you even fucking dare” Tony groaned punching his half brother in the chest before helping him out of the sarcophagus. “At least not here where you are going to ruin my career” smirked.  
  
“My dear little brother, I would never do that” Clint started in a playful tone. “But” Tony flopped in a nearby chair smiling. “I have something for you.” Still smiling Clint rummaged through his pockets.  
  
“Please not another worthless trinket Clint, if I bring one more piece of junk to the Curator to try and sell for you he is going to fire me for real” Tony shook his head.  
  
But when Clint pulled out a little box, Tony’s eyes focussed on the little object without leaving it.  
  
“Where did you…” he took the little box from Clint’s hand, turning it around. Clint just gave his little brother a mischievous smile.  
  
“On a dig in Thebes”  
  
Tony meanwhile continued to roll around the little object in his hand, mumbling to himself as he translated the hieroglyphics covering it.  
  
“My whole life I never found anything. Tony, tell me I found something.”  
  
Tony’s fingers continued to play with the box, pressing and shifting the symbols, like a puzzle box. Suddenly, with an audible click, the box unfolded itself, opening and revealing a folded piece of golden papyrus inside.  
  
“Clint?”  
  
“Tony?”  
  
“I think you found something” Tony unfolded the paper and revealed a map, with a big smile on his face. “Let’s move” he made his way toward the curator’s office, followed by his brother.  
  
The curator just stared blankly at the open box on his desk, turning it around before sighing and putting it down on the desk and taking the map in his hand, with Tony hovering behind him.  
  
“See the cartouche there,” Tony pointed on the side of the map, “it's the official royal seal of Seti the First, I'm sure of it” started pacing with a big smile playing on his face.  
  
“Perhaps” the curator, Dr. Yinsen, said lowering the map to show Clint, now sprawled on the desk, see what Tony was pointing out.  
  
“I have two question” Clint said, moving from his position across the desk to join his brother on the other side. “Who the hell was Seti the First? And was he rich?” looking between his little brother and the curator.  
  
“He was the last Pharaoh of the Old Kingdom!” Tony told him. His brother raised an eyebrow at him, not understanding “It’s said to be the wealthiest Pharaoh of them all.”  
  
At that Clint smile grow bigger then ever.  
  
“Alright, good, that's good. I like this fellow, I like him very much.” Clint started pacing as well, while Dr. Yinsen picked up the map again.  
  
“I've already dated it,” Tony said “it’s almost four thousand years old. And the hieratics over here…” Tony took a deep breath “It's Hamunaptra.” his voice tinged with awe.  
  
The two brothers don’t notice Dr. Yinsen freeze minutely at the mention, before recovering himself.  
  
“My boy don’t be ridiculous, we are historians not treasure hunters. Hamunaptra is a myth.” the curator tried to discourage the idea.  
  
“Are we talking about THE Hamunaptra?” Clint asked, without listening to the curator and reaching for his brother hand, excited.  
  
“Yes. The City of The Dead. Where the early Pharaohs were said to have hidden the wealth of Egypt.” Tony was interrupted by his brother, who shook a hand at his face, making Tony’s nose crunch up.  
  
“Right, right, in a big underground treasure chamber. Everybody knows the story. The entire necropolis was rigged to sink into the sand. On the Pharaoh's command, at a flick of the switch! The whole place could disappear beneath the dunes.” Clint recited with a bored tone.  
  
“All we know is that the city mysteriously vanished around 2,134 B.C…” Tony was interrupted when he noticed the map in the curator hand getting on fire. At that, both brothers were shocked and sprinted over to try and salvage some of it.  
  
“You burned it! You burned off the part with the lost city!” Clint stared in shock, holding what remained of the map, now without the location of the lost city.  
  
“I'm sure it was a fake, anyway, I'm surprised at you, Mr Stark, to be fooled so easily”. The curator crossed his arms and shook his head in contempt.  
  
“You killed my map.” cried Clint devastated, with tears in his eyes before turning to his brother seeking comfort.  
  
“It’s ok” Tony patted Clint on the back, before taking back the box from the curator desk and sending him a dirty and suspicious look. “Let’s go Clint”.

  
  
CAIRO PRISON (GALLOWS COURTYARD)

  
  
Tony looked around him, leaning heavily on his brother left side.  
  
“You told me, you found it in a dig down in Thebes!” Tony hissed while walking across the courtyard.  
  
“I was mistaken” Clint stated like nothing was wrong.  
  
“You lied to ME!”   
  
“I lie to everybody, what makes you more special?”  
  
“I’m your brother!” Tony punched Clint in his side, making him winch.  
  
“That makes you even more naive.”  
  
“I want to punch you.”  
  
“You already did.”  
  
“That wasn’t enough” Tony stopped in front of a door. “So… you stole it from a drunk at the local Casbah?”  
  
“More like pickpocket.. actually” Clint scratched his neck nervously.  
  
They reached the Warden, who just pushed them inside. He was chewing tobacco, reminding Tony of a camel.  
  
“So…” Tony cleared his voice “what is he in prison for?” he turned around a little so he could watch the other man.  
  
“I didn’t know, so when I heard you were coming, I asked him that myself.”  the Warden answered.  
  
“And?” Tony tried to push the Warden into answering the question.  
  
“He said… he was just looking for a good time.” They stopped in front of a cell, just when a door in the back burst open, two man carrying a third one screaming, kicking and spitting, the prisoner’s face was half covered with dirty, long hair, a scraggly beard and many new bruises.  
  
“Ugh” Tony took a step back, disgusted. “He is a rather filthy criminal” asked and let go of his brother’s arm, so he could cover his mouth and nose, at the stench. The guard dropped the man unceremoniously, where he lay slumped, looking at the floor.  
  
“Way to go Tony,” whispered Clint, shaking his head.  
  
“Way to go Barnes” when the voice of another criminal reached their ears, followed by laugh and filthy words.  
  
Barnes, finally raised his eyes from the floor to look at Tony from head to toe, before turning to Clint and scanning him too, grunting. “Who is he?” the man asked Clint.   
  
“Actually, he is my brother.”  
  
“Yeah? Well i’m sure he isn’t a total loss” the man stated.  
  
“Wha…” Tony felt his anger rise, his hands clenching to keep them from reaching the bars. The Warden stated he needed to leave for a few minutes.  
  
“I tremble with anticipation” Barnes scoffed rolling his eyes. At the words, the guard behind him hit the man on the back of his head, smashing him against the metal bar. Without showing any pain  Barnes just rolled his eyes again.  
  
“We found your puzzle box, and we came here to ask you about it.” Tony inched closer to the bars, to look Barnes in the eyes.  
  
“No.” Tony startled, before trying to regain some composure.  
  
“No?” Tony asked.  
  
“No. You came here to ask me about Hamunaptra” Barnes stated, looking directly in Tony's eyes.  
  
Clint and Tony both looked around them, hoping no one heard that, inching even closer to the bars.  
  
“How did you know about Hamunaptra?” Tony asked, crinkling his nose at the stench coming from the other man.  
  
“Because that’s where I found it. I was there” Barnes stated, like it’s nothing.  
  
Tony was taken aback, Clint narrowed his eyes in suspicion.  
  
“How do we know that’s not bullshit?” Clint asked, and at that question Barnes turned around to look at Clint. His eyes widened in recognition.”You!” Barnes growled.  
  
“Uhm… well…” Clint started, at the same moment Barnes fist came flying in his direction, hitting Clint square on the jaw, making him fall with his ass on the ground, groaning in pain. The guards hit Barnes on the head again, and started to haul him away.  
  
“WAIT” Tony screamed, making the guard stop. “You were actually at Hamunaptra?” asked staring at the other without flinching.  
  
“I just hit your brother and this is what you ask?” Barnes stared at him with big eyes.  
  
“Well, I know my brother and what he is capable of” Tony shrugged.  
  
“Yes I was there” Barnes stated again, with a smile on his face, starting to see something in this strange man.  
  
“You swear?”  
  
“Every damn day”  
  
“No I mean…” Tony started just before being interrupted.  
  
“I know what you mean. I was there, Seti Place. The City of the Dead” Barnes rolled his eyes.  
  
Scoffing, Tony tried again.  
  
“And what did you find?  
  
“Sand and Death”  
  
In that moment the Warden reappeared behind them, and Tony decided to lean even closer, lowering his voice.  
  
“And you know how to get there? The exact location?”  
  
At the question Barnes just nodded, making a little sign with his finger to come closer. Tony looked around before inching even closer, his face hovering only few inches away from the metal bars. Barnes hand sneaked out to grab him behind his neck, crushing their mouths against each other. The Warden screamed something at the guards, and Barnes was dragged away, yelling, to let him out of the cell, leaving Tony sitting on the floor gaping at the now empty cell.  
  
After a few seconds Tony gathered himself enough to get back on his feet, turning around to the Warden.  
  
“Where are they taking him?” he asked, clearing his throat.  
  
“To hang him” the Warden stated, before smirking and turning around. “But at least apparently he had a good time”.   
  
Tony just scoffed, and followed the Warden, with Clint behind him until they reached the front gate of the gallow courtyard. The Warden stopped to turn around and point a finger at Tony.  
  
“You are not allowed here!”  
  
“Why not?”  
  
“Because... “ sputtered the Warden “because.” He gestured, like what he just said made sense.  
  
“Well, lucky you I’m a librarian, so i can” and with that Tony squared his shoulders and marched past the Warden, who was left gaping at the empty spot previously occupied by Tony.  
  
“AAAAAH” the Warden screamed in frustration, before turning around and marching after Tony, going toward his seat and flopping down.  
  
With the scream echoing in the yard, Barnes looked up to stare at Tony sitting next to the Warden, like it’s the most normal thing in the world.  
  
“I’m going to give you one hundred pounds to spare his life” Tony whispered in the Warden’s ears.  
  
“I will pay one hundred pounds just to see him hang” puffed out the Warden, before turning a little just to look at Tony, with a little smile forming on his lips “Also call me Justin”  
  
At that Tony moved away from the man arching an eyebrow.  
  
“Two hundred”  
  
“Proceed”  
  
“Three hundred”  
  
The Warden didn’t even spare Tony a glance, making a quick gesture with his hand toward the hangman.  
  
“FIVE HUNDRED POUNDS!” Tony screamed exasperated, finally catching the Warden’s attention, who not so subtly, started to run a hand over Tony leg.  
  
“And what else?” he asked smirking, letting his eyes roam over Tony’s figure.   
  
Slapping at the man’s arm, Tony just shook his head disgusted, making the Warden flinch and angrily scream.  
  
“PROCEED!”  
  
The hangman just nodded at that, and pulled the lever making Barnes fall and Tony scream.  
  
“NOOOOOO” Tony moved over to the rail, like reaching for the other man, now hanging… and alive? At that Tony took a deep breath.  
  
“His neck didn’t break… oh well he is going to die suffering” puffed out the Warden, sitting back on his chair, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
An uproar started amongst the prisoners, screaming and shaking the metal bars of their cells, causing the guards to look around them in fear. Meanwhile Barnes was struggling, trying to breath at the end of the rope.  
  
Tony didn’t know what to do, or well, he did know but… but he needed to save the man’s life, so he turned around and squaring his shoulders, he leaned forward and whispered in the Warden ears.  
  
“He knows the location of Hamunaptra”.  
  
At that the Warden spun around and stared at him arching an eyebrow.  
  
“Lies”  
  
“I would never” Tony stated, crossing his arms over his chest, now confident to have the disgusting man’s attention.  
  
“So, are you saying this     son of a pig knows where to find    The City Of The Dead? Really?”  
  
“Yes” Tony nods “and if you cut that rope, we will give you ten percent”  
  
“Fifty” raise the Warden.  
  
“Twenty”  
  
“Forthy”  
  
At that Tony took a few seconds to think, moving his eyes from Barnes back to the Warden.  
  
“Twenty Five and no more touching” ends Tony.  
  
At that the Warden, gave a tense nod, before yelling something to the hangman, who cut the rope. Barnes fell in the dirt coughing, and stroking his throat, before turning a little to give a curt nod toward the balcony where Tony now stood with a smug smile dancing on his face.  
His smile turned into a shriek when the Warden’s hand started to stroke his ass. Tony turned around and gave him a big and loud slap on the face.  
  
“No touching!” He repeated, before turning around and marching out of the prison. Followed by a laughing Clint.


	4. LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN

**CHAPTER 04: LET THE JOURNEY BEGIN**

  
  
Tony tapped his foot anxiously on the dock, before turning around and staring at his brother arms crossed over his chest.  
  
“You really think he will show up?”  
  
“Unfortunately i know the breed, he may be a cowboy but he keeps his word”  
  
Tony raised an eyebrow and sighed, letting his arms fall at his side.  
  
“Personally i think he is filthy, rude and a complete scoundrel.” Punctuating every single word with a gesture. “I don’t like him one bit” he turned around and gave his brother his back.  
  
“Someone i know?” a voice.. THE voice reached Tony’s ears, making the man turn around and gape at the now freshly shaved, showered and polished Barnes.  
  
“Oh… uhm… hi.” Tony mumbled. He felt his face heat up, because this wasn’t the man he saw behind the metal bars, not at all.  
  
“Awesome day to start an adventure Barnes!” Clint shook the man's hand with both of his, saving Tony from saying something he was going to regret later. Bless his stupid brother.  
  
“Yeah…” Barnes said, checking his pockets “totally awesome,” He deadpanned, before turning to take his bag and moving on board the boat. And in that moment Rumlow saw Barnes down the dock, grimacing at the sight, before turning around and moving inside his cabin.  
“You were saying about Barnes?” Clint asked with a smug face nudging his brother’s shoulder.  
  
“Shut up” Tony groaned, smacking Clint on the head before marching after Barnes, leaving his brother behind him to take all his luggage.   
  
Inside the boat Tony stopped Barnes, planting his feet and crossing his arms over his chest, looking at him hard.  
  
Barnes just raised an eyebrow and shook his head, staring Tony in the eyes without flinching. The two of them stood there until Tony cleared his throat, uncomfortable at being silent for so long.  
  
“Mister Barnes, can you guarantee me that this is not some sort of flimflam? Because if it is…” Tony stopped when, Barnes closed the distance between them, not bothered by personal space, noses touching and staring into his eyes.  
  
“All I can tell you, mister, is that my colonel found that map in an ancient fortress, and the whole damn garrison believed in it so much, that without orders, we marched halfway across Egypt to find that damn city. Like I told ya, all I saw was sand. Everybody else was wiped-out by Tuareg warriors.” and with that he stepped out of Tony’s personal space and moved around him to reach his room.  
  
And that's the moment that the Warden appeared, with a big smile on his face.  
  
“What are you doing here?” Tony, spat out gaping at the filthy man.  
  
“I’m here to protect my investment”. And with that he left, but not without a little brush of his hand on Tony’s ass. Tony shook in disgust, making Clint laugh at his brother’s face.  
  
AT NIGHT ON THE BOAT  
  
The moon was shining on the Nile. The boat floating slowly during the quiet night, only man’s laugh and shouts were heard, and between them Clint voice rang.  
  
“BARNES!” Clint shouted when Bucky appeared from a door carrying only a gun sack. “Just the right man, we need another player and you look like the right man.” Clint tucked the other man’s shirt, with a lopsided smile playing on his lips.  
  
“No, thanks” Barnes started freeing his shirt from Clint grasp. “I only gamble with my life never with money.” He was ready to leave when the voice of one of the other men sitting at the table reached him.  
  
“Never? What if I were to wager five hundred dollars says we get to Hamunaptra before you?” the american asked with a cocky grin playing on his lips.  
  
Barnes returned the grin.  
  
“Yer on”.  
  
The Archaeologist, Pierce, pushed his glasses up his nose before turning toward Barnes.  
  
“What makes you this confident?”  
  
“What makes YOU?” Barnes spitted out never letting his smile disappear.  
  
“We got a man who was there”.  
  
Barnes face just dropped perplexed.  
  
“Oh but what coincidence, w…” Barnes accidentally smacked Clint in the ribs, shutting him up.   
  
“I think I leave you to play” Bucky said before turning, and sending one last look of warning toward Clint.  
  
“...whose deal is it? Is it my deal? I thought I just dealt?” Bucky heard Clint say, before leaving the man alone playing cards, and going to join Tony who chilled in a corner reading a book, flipping slowly to another page.  
  
Tony didn’t notice anything, completely absorbed in his own world, until a heavy bag dropped on the table making him jump on the spot. He raised his glasses to stare at the other, raising an eyebrow in question.  
  
“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” Barnes said sheepishly, scratching his neck and making Tony scoff and push the glasses back on his nose.  
  
“The only thing that scares me mister Barnes, are your manners,” Tony deadpanned, going back to his book, without glancing again at the other.  
  
“Still mad at me because of that kiss?”   
  
“If you call that a kiss.”  
  
Barnes just reached for the sack, making it roll on the table displaying his guns collection, stopping Tony from his reading.  
  
“I’m missing something?” Tony started removing his glasses. “Are we going into battle?” he closed the book to stare at the guns display in front of him, fascinated.  
  
“There is something there, under the sand.”   
  
“Yes, I’m hoping to find a certain artifact, a book just to be clear... What do you think is out there?”   
  
At that Barnes, looked without flinching in Tony's eyes, starting to clean a gun.  
  
“Evil.” Barnes said. “The bedouins and the tuareg think that the city is cursed. They call it, the Gateway to Hell…”  
  
“Passage to the Underworld actually” Tony corrected him, giving the other a shit eating grin. “I don’t believe in fairytales, mister Barnes. But I do believe that one of the most famous books in history is buried there. The Book of the Living. And this book is what first interested me as a child, and what I’m here to find… sort of life pursuit.” Tony tilted his head a little and nodded satisfied.  
  
“And the fact that the book is made of pure gold, doesn’t affect you right?” Barnes scoffed, putting away the gun and taking a rifle, starting cleaning again.  
  
Tony gaped at him.  
  
“You know your history” Tony breathed out, amazed.  
  
“I know my treasure” Barnes bit back, letting the silence fall upon them.  
  
“I…” Tony stared before biting his lips, taking a deep breath and starting again. “Why did you kiss me?” he asked, staring at the other. Barnes that just continued with his cleaning work.  
  
“I was about to hanged” Barnes shrugged, “It seemed like a good idea.”   
  
Tony eyes went wide, his face morphed in fury and without saying a word he stormed off, knocking over a chair and some boxes along the way, leaving a gaping Barnes behind.  
  
“What… what did I SAY?” he yelled raising his hand, without receiving an answer from Tony, but hearing a muffled laugh coming from under another table. He shot his hand toward the sound.  
  
“Why if it ain't my buddy, Rumlow.” Barnes rose from his chair, dragging Rumlow with him who stared at him with a smirk playing on his face.  
  
“My friend, you were never good at flirting.” Rumlow freed his shirt from the iron clutch of Barnes and took a step back.  
  
“I’m going to kill you” Barnes whispered, taking one of his knives and pointing at Rumlow’s throat, making the man swallow and raise his hands in defeat. “You are the one leading the american. So what’s the scam? You’ll take them into the middle of the desert and them let them rot?” he asked without moving his knife from Rumlow throat.  
  
“Unfortunately I can’t, these guys are smart. They pay me only half now, and the other half when I get them back in Cairo, so I need to go all the way,” Rumlow said, shrugging and lowering his arms the moment Barnes removed his knife. “You never believed in Hamunaptra, why now?” Rumlow rubbed a hand over his throat.  
  
“He saved my life” Barnes said at the same moment that they hear Tony yelp and giggle at a camel that tries to chew his shirt.  Barnes smiled softly at the sound, and Rumlow turned a calculating glance at the man.  
  
“You always did have more balls than brain” Rumlow said, making Barnes narrow his eyes in his direction.  
  
“Let’s makes this even, shall we?” Barnes said, a few seconds before he took Rumlow by his shirt and pushed him over the railing., Barnes calmly put his guns back in the sack taking taking it with him as he headed off, down the deck.  
  
“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU BARNES, I’M GOING TO KILL YOU!!!” Rumlow screamed from the cold water of the Nile.  
  
“Sounds familiar,” Barnes deadpanned, moving his eyes to the floor where a set of wet footprints, coming from the railing, headed down the deck toward Tony’s cabin.  
“Fuck,” Barnes hissed under his breath, running in the  direction of the footprints.  
  
Inside his cabin Tony didn't notice anything. He was ready for the night, wearing only a pair of pants and nothing else, standing in front of a mirror, scratching his head and mumbling some words under his breath, reading and rereading the same line since he left Barnes.  
  
“Ah,” Tony groaned frustrated, slamming the book on the table in front of him and turning around just in time to see a man completely dressed in black, and with a hook instead of his left hand move toward him.  
“Wha…” but the man used his good hand to cover Tony’s mouth and make the archeologist shut up.  
  
“Where is the map?” The man in black growled, putting the hook near Tony’s eye. Tony glanced down on the table, and the man followed his eyes finding the map near a flickering candle.  
“And the key? Where is the key?” the man asked again, closing the distance between their faces with a grin playing on his features.  
  
Tony shook his head in confusion and turned around trying to gain more space between them. At the action Hook’s grin grew even bigger.  
  
“Then I’ll find it myself.”  
  
Fortunately it was in that moment that Barnes ran inside, making Hook trip and fall on the floor, taking the table with him and setting everything on fire. Another man dressed in black who lurked outside was alerted when he peered inside the little room through a window. When he spotted Tony and Bucky he began firing a gun toward the two men.  
  
“Friends of yours?” Barnes asked in the midst of the chaos, firing against the new man, and running away taking a still gaping Tony with him, letting him go just outside the room.  
  
“Oh” Tony stopped, turning around, ready to run back in the room.  
  
“What are you doing?!?!” Barnes screamed, taking Tony's hand in his and stopping the man.  
  
“The map!” Tony screamed, pointing toward his cabin, now on fire “The map is still there!”   
  
“Relax” Barnes blurted out, spinning Tony toward a wall. “I am the map,” he said, tapping his forehead “It’s all up here.” He took Tony’s hand in his and started to run again.  
  
“Comforting” Tony mumbled, rolling his eyes but letting the man drag him away.  
  
Meanwhile Clint tumbled inside Tony’s room, searching for his lil brother and finding only the man in black screaming with the burnt map attached to his hook and staring at the little container of the map.  
  
“AH!” Clint screamed, launching himself to take the box before the man could. “This is mine,” and ran away.  
  
Barnes continued to pull Tony with him, passing by screaming people and horses going nuts because of the fire and the gunshots. One reverberated near Barnes’ head, making the man turn around and fire at another man in black that followed them near the paddock. Everything was going fas. Fire growing out of control and bullets flying in all directions.  
  
“Can you swim?” Barnes asked after few minutes dodging  bullets thanks to Tony.  
  
“Of course I can!” Tony puffed out, straightening his back with pride.  
  
“Good” and with that Barnes pushed Tony over the side of the boat, making the man scream in surprise.  
  
After few seconds, Clint joined Barnes running directly into the river without asking questions, followed shortly by Hammer, who didn’t ask questions before following the group of men right into the Nile.  
  
\-----  
  
Barnes, Clint, Hammer and Tony wade out of the water, completely soaked and freezing. Tony wearing only a pair of boxers, shivered from the night chill while still clinging to the guns sacks. In that moment Barnes suddenly noticed how good he looked, under the moonlight, with his hair sticking to his forehead, and water slowly running down his body, and… he needed to stop.  
  
“Hey Barnes, looks like I’ve got all the horses!” Rumlow screamed with a big smirk playing on his face, distracting him from his wandering thoughts.  
  
“Hey Rumlow, looks like you are on the wrong side of the river!” Barnes shouted back, making the man look up at the sky and curse.  
  
\-----  
  
Barnes was talking with a man in arabic, trying to barter for some camels, while Clint just took the cash and handed it over to the camel trader, who gave him the reign of four ugly camels.  
  
“I can’t believe the price is so high for this damn fleabags” Clint mumbled, taking the camel from the man.  
  
“We coulda had 'em for free, all we had to do was give 'em your lil brother.”   
  
“Tempting right?”  
  
“Awfully.” Barnes shot back, just when Tony came out of a tent, dressed in a beautiful and tightly fitted dress. “Then again…” and stopped there, staring at Tony that stared back, with a small smile playing under a black veil one the women put on his face.  
  
\-----  
  
In the middle of Sahara desert, Barnes, Clint, Tony and Hammer moved toward their destination in silence, interrupted only by the camels grunting.  
  
“Never liked camels,” Clint stated. “They are filthy buggers, they smell, bite and spit.” He shook his head in disgust.  
  
“Yeah,” Barnes agreed, when Hammer, scratched his head and spat to the side while watching  Tony’;s form. “Disgusting.” Barnes moved a little to put himself between Hammer and Tony, who remained completely unaware of what was happening behind him.  
  
“Well...” Tony scratched his camel’s head and giggled at the animal’s reaction. “I think they are cute.” He said with a pleased smile on his lips.   
  
‘You are cute too’ Barnes thought, staring with a little smile at the scene in front of him.  
  
With the sun setting and the air chilling, their little adventure through the desert was going to end soon.


	5. HAMUNAPTRA

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'M ALIVE!!!! Even if no one care, i'm alive, and i swear i'm going to end this fic... but the big question is there is people interested in me finishing this fic?  
> Also Marry Christmast!!! ♥

**CHAPTER 5: HAMUNAPTRA**

  
  
Stopping the camel, Clint elbowed Hammer in the ribs, who was snoring on top of his camel.  
  
“You snore!” Clint accused him, before turning toward his brother and Barnes, who stared in front of them, waiting.  
  
“I do not.” Hammer bit out in anger.  
  
“Yes, you do.”  
  
“No, I do not.”  
  
Tony sighed and moved his eyes from his idiot brother to Barnes, who now stood near him.  
  
“Now what?” Tony asked him, petting the camel and scratching the animal’s head with a little smile.  
  
“Now we wait.” Barnes said, crossing his arms and turned away from the smiling man near him to look at the desert in front of them.  
  
“What are these?!?!” Hammer screeched out, looking down at the ‘blanket’ of skeletons sticking out of the ground, bleached by the sun and eaten by animals. When he took a step back loud crushing sounds could be heard.  
  
“This” Barnes said, without moving his eyes from the horizon. “are the other seekers of Hamunaptra”. A new voice spoke up, making Barnes sigh and shake his head.  
  
“Good morning my friends.” Rumlow smiled stopping just a few steps away from them, with the other group of Americans.  
  
“Rumlow.” Barnes groaned, scratching his head.  
  
“What the hell are we doing here?” An irritated voice behind him asked.  
  
“Patience Boss. Patience”.  
  
One of the Americans looked toward Barnes with a smirk playing on his lips.  
  
“First one to reach the city wins, Barnes! Five hundred! Cash bucks!”  
  
Barnes didn’t answer, and instead turned toward Tony and smiled.  
  
“Get ready,” he said and turned to the front again stretching his back.  
  
“For what?” Tony asked, looking around him in confusion and  turning toward the horizon like Barnes did, following his eyes.  
  
“We are about to be shown the way.” And like that the sun started to rise, outlining the shape of a city, followed shortly by a way bathed in light. Both parties looked amazed at the beautiful sight, while Barnes and Rumlow just stared at the show in front of them like it was nothing strange or amazing, and then…  
  
“HEYA” the American’s scream reached Barnes ears and broke the little bubble of peace, prompting everyone to run toward their final destination: Hamunaptra.  
  
Barnes sighed and turned around toward Rumlow with a big grin, before sprinting forward and trying to pass the Americans to win the bet.  
  
Tony stared at the others, blinking slowly before sighing and prompting his camel to race toward the city, smiling happily at the entire situation. Something he would never have believed could happen to him.  
  
He reached Barnes without even noticing, when the camel slowed down a little bit in time to look each other in the eyes.  
  
“Tony?” Barnes stared back at him gaping. Tony smirked and gave the camel a little boost, sprinting toward the city wall, laughing like never before. “TONY SLOW DOWN!” Barnes’ voice reached his ears alarmed, but he didn’t want to listen, he wanted to run, he wanted to be free, until the camel stopped abruptly just after passing the wall, making Tony fly and land on his back on the sand.  
  
“That hurt.” Tony groaned, rolling on his stomach, before rolling back on his back and blinking at the sun above him.  
  
“TONY!” Barnes voice reached his ears, voice tinged with fear and something else that Tony didn’t want to dwell on, at least not at the moment. When his face popped up in front of him.  
  
“I’m all right” Tony said raising his thumbs up and smiling, before sitting up.  
  
Barnes breathed out, and shook his head.  
  
“You never listen, do you?” Without waiting for an answer, he turned around toward the group of Americans that only then reached them.  
  
“You boys owe me five hundred dollars,” he smirked before he helped Tony back on his feet, and moving to set up their camp for the night.  
  
\-----  
  
While some diggers were busy hauling rocks under the guidance of an archeologist Pierce in front of the temple entrance, Hammer, Barnes, Tony and Clint were working next to a narrow crevice under the statue of Anubis, lord of the underworld. They managed to open a passage at the feet of the statue.  
  
“Are you sure?” Clint asked, pointing inside the black hole, where Barnes had tossed a rope before starting to lower himself down into the cavern.  
  
“Yes, I’m sure,” Tony said,following Barnes inside. When he reach the bottom he started to clean some old glasses near his landing spot.  
  
“Why do I even ask,” Clint groaned before following his brother inside the passage, followed soon after by Hammer who cleaned some dirt out of his clothes when he was down, and moved away from the group, going on his own way to search for some treasure.  
  
“What are those ancient mirrors?” Barnes asked from the other side of the room, following Tony’s instruction and cleaning the remaining mirror.  
  
“You’ll see,” Tony deadpanned before moving to another mirror, letting a satisfied smile creep on his face. “Also… Clint get to work” and pointed to the last mirror at his brother’s left. Clint groaned before starting to work, like his brother asked.  
  
“Let there be light!” Tony announced moving a little his mirror, and making the light flow inside the room and illuminating everything.  
  
“That’s so cool,” Barnes breathed out. He was starting to look around him, when a squeak reached his ears making him turn around toward Tony that started to jump on his spot all excited.  
  
“Oh my God. It’s a preparation room!” Tony ran toward a table, before moving again toward a sarcophagus, and then toward another table, without ever stopping. All energy and life, making Barnes smile at the sight.  
  
“Preparation for what?” Barnes asked, being a little amused by the show unfolding in front of him.  
  
“For entering the afterlife,” Tony giggled, confusing Barnes even more, who turned around to stare at Clint who just shrugged at his brother antics.  
  
“Mummies my friends, this is where they made mummies.” Clint explained before following Tony inside a little passage at the far end of the room.  
  
“Mummies…” Barnes whispered before shaking his head and following the two brothers.  
  
The group was making its way inside a narrow and cobweb infested labyrinth, when they reached Hammer, who had stopped in the middle of the passage, blocking their way.  
  
“What..” Tony started, when the warden shushed him, making the group listen to the strange clawing that seemed to comes from inside the walls.  
  
The group shared a look, before starting to move again slowly, following the passage that got darker and darker the further they went. The sound grew louder, making the group stop again with Tony holding his breath, Clint licking his lips nervously, Barnes taking his gun and Hammer groping Tony’s ass, making the man jump and slap the warden in the face.  
  
“I warned you,” Tony hissed before marching away from the others, followed soon after by Clint and Barnes who glared at Hammer, making the man huff.  
  
After a few more minute inside the labyrinth, the group finally reached its end, stumbling upon a chamber where the lower half of a statue lay. They heard the noise again, getting closer. And closer. Barnes pulled Tony behind him, obtaining a squawk at the action, and pulled out his gun ready...  
Barnes jumped out of his hiding spot coming face to face with the other group of Americans that pointed their guns toward them.  
  
“You scared the shit out of us Barnes,” announced one of them, without lowering his guns.  
  
“Likewise,” Barnes deadpanned, not lowering his gun either.  
  
“This is our statue,” Pierce stated.  
  
“I don’t see your name on it,” Barnes replied, holding his gun steady, while Rumlow decided to come over and make everything worse.  
  
“Ten to one.” Rumlow grinned, pointing his gun toward Barnes. “Not even you can win this.”  
  
“Who knows,” Barnes said, tilting his head and smiling, when Tony pushed himself in the middle of the chaos, looking between the two groups.  
  
“Let's be nice, children, if we're going to play together, we must learn to share.” Tony said smiling, and he turned toward Barnes, tilting his head a little, hoping that the other understood what he wanted to do. He waited few seconds before pulling Barnes away, followed soon by his brother and Hammer without  question, letting the group of Americans deal with the statue. In that moment Tony knew that everything was going to be great.  
  
Reaching their new destination, Tony directed the works, pointing his brother and Barnes with hammers, before taking a little scalpel and starting to work slowly and in a delicate way over another side of the base of the statue.  
  
“According to my calculations we should be right under the statue of Anubis. We’ll come up between his legs…” Tony tilted his head to the side, before starting to laugh. “Oh my...”  
  
“And then when those Yankees are looking in the wrong direction...” Clint turned around toward Barnes, “No offense.”  
  
“None taken,” Barnes answered back without stopping his work.  
  
“We are going to steal the book under their nose.” Clint ended with a big nod, before turning around and starting to play with his hammer, letting Tony and Barnes do what they were doing.  
  
“Yes, if their egyptologist, that Pierce, hasn’t found it yet,” Tony answered back, confident about his work and studies over the years.  
  
After few minutes of silence, Clint looked around, arching an eyebrow.  
  
“Where the hell did our disgusting, little friend go?” He asked, receiving only shrugs followed by complete silence.  
  
In the meantime Hammer crawled through a dimly lit passage, with only the torch in his hand to light his way. When he reached a big room a mural appeared in front of him, ornate with beautiful black amethyst scarabs glittering under the torch light. Smiling, Hammer took a little knife from his pouch, and started to remove every single beetle from the wall before putting them into his bag.  
  
“Mine.” He whispered, smiling at the little treasures.  
  
\-----  
  
Inside the chamber where Tony and his friends left the Americans, the archaeologist supervised the work, making the diggers work for him  The men stopped, however, the moment they reached the Anubis statue, obviously scared.  
Pierce noticed the stall yelled at the men to make them work. he diggers stepped toward the statue again,to stick their crowbars inside the seams, but stopping and looking around them in time to see the other diggers and the Americans back away. In that moment, with a little bit of pressure on one of the crowbars, the lid opened; spraying the men in front with a with dust that made them scream and back away, clawing at their, burned faces without success, before dropping dead...  
  
\-----  
  
Nearly at the same moment the American group opened the statue, a big piece of roof suddenly gave out above Tony and the rest, prompting Barnes to take Tony’s hand to pull im away from the falling debris.  
  
“What was that?” Barnes asked in between a coughing fit, while the dust settled on the ground clearing the air.  
  
“Oh my God...” Tony whispered breathless, slowly raising himself from the floor to move toward the object “...it looks like a sarcophagus”.  
  
“Why would they bury someone in the ceiling.” Barnes asked, reaching for Tony and looking at the sarcophagus.  
  
“They didn’t.” Tony shook his head and moved around the sarcophagus, letting his finger trace the hieroglyphics. “They buried him at Anubis feet. And they did that because he was someone really important or because he did something very naughty,” he smirked., When he finally raised his eyes from the sarcophagus, it was in time to see Hammer run screaming from a opening inside the wall, shaking his hand in the hair and ending his run when he crushed against the opposite wall, falling backwards on the floor.  
  
“What was that?” Clint asked, pointing at the man on the floor.  
  
“Dunno.” Barnes answered before going to see to Hammer, checking his pulse, only to find the man dead. “But he is actually dead.”  
  
“Oh.” Tony breathed out, turning around to look again at the sarcophagus, trying to ignore the dead man on the other side.  
  
“Tony,” Clint’s soft voice reached his ears, and his gentle hand started to rub his back, hoping to reach his little brother.  
  
“It’s ok,” Tony stated, taking a deep breath. “Everything is ok, everything is going to be ok.” He shivered and focused his brain on translating the hieroglyphics in front of him, trying to forget everything else running inside his head.  
  
“Well… who is it?” Barnes asked, feeling tension in the air and covering Hammer’s body with the man’s jacket, before reaching Tony near the sarcophagus. Tony who stared at the hieroglyphics, confused and concerned.  
  
“'He that shall not be named.” Tony recited, rising his eyes slowly  before looking at Barnes and his brother.  
  
“There’s some sort of lock here,” Barnes said dusting the object. “You said these things are made of granite with a steel interior right?” he asked, raising his head and looking at Tony.  
  
“Quarried granite with a cobalt lining.” Tony corrected the other, tilting his head.  
  
“Whoever's in here, sure wasn't getting out” Clint added smiling, and looked between the other two men, without gaining any sort of reaction.  
  
“No kiddin', without a key, it'll take us a month to crack this thing,” Barnes said when Tony face lightened up as he stared at his brother with a big smile on his face.  
  
“A key! That's it! That's what he was talking about.” Tony said before starting to rummage through Clint’s pack. At that Clint and Barnes shared a look, without understanding what Tony was talking about. And like knowing what was happening behind his back Tony continued talking.  
“The man on the boat, the one with the hook that attacked me, he was looking for a key” Tony said, pulling out the box/key from Clint pack, making his brother squawk.  
  
“HEY! That’s mine!”  
  
“HA!” Tony slapped Clint’s hand away before opening the box, meaning to open the sarcophagus, when a scream reached their ears, stopping Tony from everything and making the man dash toward the scream.  
The scream that came from the American group. Once they got there and saw the bodies, they decided to call it a day.  
  
\-----  
  
“What do you think killed Hammer?”  
  
“Did you ever saw him eat?” Clint said back, making Tony roll his eyes.  
  
“Seems like the Americans had a little misadventure too. “ Barnes said, coming back toward their tent. “It looks like three of their diggers were killed.”  
  
“How?” Tony asked after a while.  
  
“Some ancient booby-trap, with some pressurised salt acid”.  
  
“This place is cursed for real.”  
  
“Oh stop it Clint….” Tony breathed out, swatting his brother on the shoulder. When a gust of wind passed through the camp, making the fire flicker, Barnes and Clint shared a look, making Tony laugh at the scene in front of him. “Both of you… seriously?” Tony said, shaking his head and receiving a groan in response from his brother.  
  
“Don’t believe in the curse huh?” Barnes asked, after Tony calmed down.  
  
“No, I believe in what I can touch and feel. That’s what I believe in.” Tony said, crossing his arm.  
  
“And I believe in being prepared.” Barnes stated, loading his rifle and giving Tony a big smile.  
  
Clint shrugged and started to rummage through Hammer’s bag, slowly and really careful, until he suddenly screamed. Tony and Barnes jumped from their seat, and turn around to look at Clint.  
  
“WHAT WAS THAT?!?” Both men screamed, seeing Clint pull his hand away from the bag to suck his finger like a kid, before putting his other hand inside and pulling out a liquor bottle with the top broken.  
  
“Seagram.” Clint announced with a big smile on his face, putting down the bottle and turning the bag upside down to find it filled only with sand and broken glasses. “Well… at last our filthy friends had good taste,” he said,before taking a swing, making Tony and Barnes laugh.  
  
All of a sudden Barnes knelt down, sticking one ear to the sand. Tony and Clint watched him with gaping mouth, a beat and Barnes is suddenly on his feet taking his rifle and pointing a finger at Tony.  
  
“You stay here!” he shouted and rushed toward the entrance of the ruin.  
  
“Tony...” Clint turned around toward his brother in time to see him raise from his seat, and follow the other man. “I fucking knew it,” Clint sighed, taking a rifle and following his brother.  
  
\-----  
  
The American camp was under attack, chaos spread everywhere, bullets flying and men running and screaming.  
A dozen  men dressed in black, covered from from head to toe, with only their eyes visible, like the ones that attacked them on the boat, were running through the camp, killing a lot of diggers, while the Americans screamed before starting to fire back.  
  
Barnes reached the group in time to see Rumlow running away from a man on a horse, shooting at the man and saving Rumlow’s life like that.  
  
“You were going somewhere?” Barnes asked, letting Rumlow fall flat on his ass to look back at him.  
  
“Yes, I was going for a weapon,” Rumlow announced raising his hands, showing he wasn’t armed.  
  
“C’mon,” Barnes sighed, giving Rumlow a gun from one of the dead men. “Now you can fight back.”  
  
In that moment both men saw a red haired woman gallop through the camp, with a scimitar in one hand and a rifle dropped over her back, cutting people down on her way.  
  
“That’s scary.” Barnes whispered, before running and climbing on a rock, to jump and tackle the woman off her horse. They rolled on the sand and he fired at her hand, knocking the scimitar away. Ready to fire again, Barnes was stopped by a horse passing between them and a scimitar nearly taking his head off. When the warrior was gone, the woman had disappeared, like she wasn’t there in the first place.  
  
When Tony arrived he took cover behind some rocks, followed by Clint who crouched down near him, with his rifle ready. From here Tony watched the unfolding of the events in silence, with his eyes never leaving Barnes’ back. A noise behind him made him turn around, in time to see someone run toward them, making Tony screech as he saw the man fall off his horse after a gunshot.  
  
“Take this!” Clint said, and handed over his rifle, taking the one from the fallen man for himself. He rushed off to help another group before turning around shouting at his brother. “And use it!” leaving Tony alone and scoffing.  
  
More fire, screams and sand, blood and death, from both sides.  
  
Clint helped some diggers escape to safety. Barnes helped the Americans on the other side by shooting at the attackers, and Tony fired at the occasional man attacking the other group from behind. This went on for some time. A quick sand wind made everyone stop to cover their eyes. The moment the sand was down, the men in black were gone, and everything was quiet again… Until the warriors reappeared behind them. Clint and the remaining diggers turned around and found themselves in a hand to hand combat.  
  
Barnes was loading his gun, when the red haired woman appeared again and charged against him, letting his gun fly away with a strike of her scimitar. Barnes gaped at her, when a *cacinck* hit the woman’s weapon, making her turn around and stare at Tony who was hiding behind a fallen wall, with his rifle still raised and shocked about what happened. This gave Barnes the time to take a stick of dynamite out of his bag and holding it in the campfire next to him.  
  
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Barnes said, when the woman threatened him by putting the cold blade of the scimitar against his skin.  
  
“Leave this place… or die” the woman announced, before whistling and turning her horse around and gallop off, leaving the men at the camp drained.  
  
Sighing, Barnes turned to the burning fuse and blow it out. Tony, on the other side of the wall, fell on the sand, shaken and high on adrenaline.  
  
“You ok?” Barnes asked when he reached Tony, who shook his head and turned his face to look the other man in the eyes, that were showing real concern for the first time  since they met.  
  
“Yeah…” Tony said, trying to go back to his feet. “Yeah, I’m fine, totally fine,” he announced. Finally on his feet he started to dust off some sand from his clothes.  
  
“See,” one of the Americans said. “This proves that the Old Seti fortune is buried under this sand.”  
  
“For them to protect this place like that,” continued another “you know for sure that there is gonna be a treasure under here.”  
  
“Imbeciles,” Barnes muttered under his breath, shaking his head. “That doesn’t prove anything. These are desert men, they don’t care about treasure, they value water above everything else.” He reached for Tony, and took away the rifle that he clutched in his hands with a death grip, making Tony turn around with a very scared expression on his face.  
  
“Where is Clint?” Tony asked in a whisper, looking around in search for his brother.  
  
\-----  
  
They found him lying in the sand. Clint shook a half empty bottle, took a sip and flopped on his coat before starting to snore, with a little smile on his face. Tony promptly snatched the bottle and took a sip, swaying on his feet.  
  
“Unlike my brother I can handle my liquor really well,” he slurred, flopping down on the coat near Clint.  
  
“I can totally see that,” Barnes muttered under his breath. He sat down beside Tony and snatched the now empty bottle from Tony’s hand to throw it away behind him. “Also, unlike your brother…” he took a deep breath, “I totally don’t understand you”.  
  
Tony chuckled and wiped his nose with the back of his hand, turning around to stare at Barnes with a lopsided smile.  
  
“I know… you are wondering what a place like this is doing in a man like me,” he said, opening his arms and swaying from side to side.  
  
“Something like that.” Barnes answered back, smiling at the big enygma that was his Tony.  
  
“Egypt is in my blood,” Tony announced, standing up again and pointing an unsteady finger at Barnes, before looking at the night sky. “My father was a famous explorer,” he said with sadness in his eyes. “My mother was a great historian. They met here, fell in love and then I was born.” A little soft smile, full of love, played on his lips.  
  
“Okay,” Barnes said. “Now I get your father, your mother and even your brother… in some kind of way, but why are you here?”  
  
Tony looked insulted at that statement , and turned around so fast that he staggered on his feet, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting.  
  
“I may not be an adventurer, a historian, a treasure hunter or a gunfighter, Mr. Barnes! But I’m proud of what I am!” he exclaimed with a little nod.  
  
“And what is that?” Barnes prompted, in time for Tony to fall back on the coat, grinning proudly.  
  
“A librarian!” He breathed out just few inches from Barnes’ face. “And I’m going to kiss you,” Tony announced, eyes foggy, and cheeks red.  
  
“No, you’re not” Barnes said.  
  
“I’m not?”  
  
“Not till you call me Bucky”  
  
“Why should I?” Tony asked, bumping his nose with Barnes… Bucky.  
  
“Because that’s how people I care about call me.”  
  
Tony gave Bucky a goofy smile, leaning closer and letting their foreheads touch. Bucky closed his eyes when their mouths were so close…. but Tony slumped down snoring, leaving Bucky kissing the air, and sighing.


	6. THE CURSE

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm still stuck with this fic, and the worst is that is the last chapter i'm strugling to end... i'm sorry OTL

**CHAPTER 6: THE CURSE**

  
  
“I can’t believe you let me get drunk.” Tony hissed early next morning, kicking the leg of his brother, while opening the key and reading everything to open the sarcophagus.  
  
“Hey” Clint hissed back, massaging the offended area. “Don’t blame me, I don’t even remember being there!”  
  
“Well, neither do I thanks to you” Tony groaned, while he turned the key. They heard a strange mechanical sound before the sarcophagus  slipped open partially with a little hiss. Tony took a little step back, amazed by the mechanism, before moving back to his place and starting to push against the heavy lid, opening it inch by inch.  
  
“You don’t?” Bucky asked, with a hurt look in his eyes.  
  
“No…” Tony blinked slowly. “Why… should I?” he asked,arching an eyebrow in question.  
  
“Well, you told me, it was the best time you had ever had,” Bucky said, with a cheesy smile plastered on his face, making Tony blush and gape. But in that moment the lid fell off the sarcophagus, making the three men step back and moan in disgust.  
  
  
The group of Americans, with Pierce in the lead, started to work again around Anubis’ statue, searching and digging, while one new digger was trembling near the box that was found the day before inside, waiting for Pierce to translate the hieroglyphics on the top of the box.  
  
“There’s a curse upon this.” Pierce announced, letting his finger move over the lid of the box.  
  
“Curse my ass,” groaned one of the Americans, taking one of the crowbars, ready to open the box.  
  
“Yeah, who cares?” added another from the group, making Pierce roll his eyes.  
  
“You don’t? Ok, but those men, do believe in that curse.” Pierce pointed at the diggers trembling near them.  
  
“Okay, okay… read it,” The one with the crowbar sighed.  
  
Pierce nodded, and started to read.  
  
" _Death will come on swift wings to whomever opens this chest_ " he read, in time for a gust of wind to blow inside the room, which made all the torches flicker and drove diggers to run away scared and screaming. The group that was left stared at each other nervously.  
  
“It continues to say that there is one,” Pierce started again, reading slowly. “Who, if brought back from the dead, is bound by sacred law to consummate this curse.” Pierce said, taking a deep breath and looking around him.  
  
“Well… let’s try to not take anyone from the dead,”  one of the men tried to joke, making the others laugh nervously.  
  
“He will kill all of who open the chest, and assimilate their organs and fluids.”  
  
“You mean eat them all?” asked one, shivering, receiving only a brief nod in answer.  
  
“And in doing so, he will regenerate and no longer be undead, but a plague on this earth.” Pierce finally ended, taking a step back, with the torches flickering around them.  
  
“Oh hell, let’s open it.” And with that the one with the crowbar started to push the chest open.  
  
\-----  
  
In the meantime, Tony jumped back the moment the lid of the sarcophagus fell open, covering his heart with one hand and his mouth with the other, eyes going wide with excitement.  
  
“Is he okay?” Bucky asked, staring at Tony and inching closer to Clint who waved him off, taking a step toward the sarcophagus himself.  
  
“Oh my God!” Tony breathed out, starting to move toward the coffin. “This is a dream come true.”  
  
“You dream about dead guys?” Bucky asked, side eyeing Tony, who ignored him, completely focused on the coffin. He touched the lid with reverence, and wiped off all the cobweb and dust before freezing.  
  
“Look, all the sacred spells have been deleted. The hieratics and hieroglyphs that protected this person on his journey into the afterlife. They've been removed.” He stopped a few seconds to take a deep breath and finally raise his eyes from the coffin. “This man was cursed. Doomed.”  
  
“Yeah, poor man.” Bucky brushed off, followed by Clint who just nodded too excited to care about the fate of someone ancient, reaching for the lock.  
  
“Now, let’s see what's inside.” Tony said, reaching for the key, and opening the coffin.  
  
The lid slid open with a hiss, making a foul stench rise in the air. They took a step back and covered their noses.  
  
“What is that?” Clint asked with a muffled voice.  
  
“Rotten flesh,” Tony deadpanned. “Now open the lid.” He moved his eyes from Bucky to his brother, who shrugged and started to push, making the heavy lid slide slowly. Very slowly. Until with a final push the lid fell off revealing the most hideous, bug infested, rotten corpse imaginable. Mar-Ga-Ret.  
The three of them screamed and jumped away.  
  
\-----  
  
In the other room, Pierce and Rumlow stand beside the other 3 Americans, waiting for the man to open the box.  
  
“Screw you! I don’t get paid enough for this.” Rumlow said before turning around and run out of the chamber.  
  
“Stupid, superstitious bastard.” Groaned one of the three, before breaking the seal and making everyone cough because of the black dust coming out of the chest.  
  
\-----  
  
“This is really a stupid idea” Clint mumbled, but still following his brother toward the mummy, to look back inside the coffin, cringing at the disgusting sight.  
  
“Is he supposed to look like this?” Bucky asked moving his eyes from Tony to the mummy, and back to Tony.  
  
“No. I never saw a mummy like this, he is still so…”  
  
“Juicy?” Clint fill back.  
  
“Yes.” Tony pointed at the mummy. “I mean, he is four thousand years old and still decomposing!”  
  
“And look at this!” Barnes pointed toward the lid, where scratches and dried blood covered the inside.  
  
“Oh my God! He was buried ALIVE!” Tony screeched in a high pitched voice, before composing himself and taking a better look at the lid where a grouping of hieratics stood in between all the dried blood. “A message,” he pointed at the messy writing. “It says ‘ _Death is only the beginning’_ “.  
  
Clint shivered, while Bucky started to look around himself.  
  
“Where is my gun?” Bucky asked.  
  
“What are you going to do? Shoot him?”  
  
“If he wakes up? Hell yeah!” Bucky said, retrieving his gun and moving out of the chamber followed by Tony and Clint.  
  
\-----  
  
While the black dust was setting, Pierce reached inside of the chest to remove a heavy rough cloth making the three men move from their position and watch him with wide eyes, while Pierce unfolded a black book. The Book of the Dead.  
  
“I have heard many stories about this book, but I never believed they were true.” He stopped a few seconds in awe, stroking the book in his hand. “This, gentlemen, is a most prized treasure,” he said raising his eyes from the book, only to find the other men groaning.  
  
“Isn’t that supposed to be gold?” One asked while kicking the chest and making another compartment open and revealing, five jeweled encrusted canopies jars.  
  
“Now that is a treasure,” another breathed out , going to collect all the canopies and gems.  
  
\-----  
  
After the raid of the day before, the two camps had joined together for safety’s sake.  
  
Rumlow and Bucky, were seated near the fire and roasted some meat with Clint sitting just few feet away staring at the two men with a disgusted face. The three Americans and Pierce sat on the other side of the fire, polishing their discoveries, laughing and chatting in a low voice.  
  
“Scarab flesh eater,” Tony announced when he dropped the skeleton of the scarab near the fire. “I found them in the coffin,” he continued, plopping down near Bucky, who pushed Rumlow away to let Tony sit comfortably. “They can stay alive for years living of the flesh of a corpse.” He took some of the meat from the fire.  
  
“So you are saying somebody threw these things in with our guy, and they slowly ate him alive?” Barnes asked.  
  
“Very slowly.” Tony pointed out, taking a bite of the meat and moaning at the good taste. Making Bucky gape at him.  
  
“Well… he certainly wasn’t popular.” Clint said shrugging.  
  
“Maybe got a little frisky with the pharaoh's daughter.” Bucky said after few seconds of silence, completely ignored by the other two.  
  
“According to my reading, our friend suffered the HOM-DAI, the worst of all ancient Egyptian curses, one reserved only for the most evil,” Tony said, and gave the meat to Clint.  
  
“That bad?” Bucky asked.  
  
“Yes.” Tony started again. “They never used it, because they feared the consequences. It’s written that if the victim, should they ever arise, would bring with him the ten plagues of Egypt.”  
  
“All the ten plagues?” Bucky asked.  
  
“Yes, all of them.”  
  
Hearing about the curse, all the men around the fire shared a look, before turning toward Tony who laughed at their reaction, before starting to poke at the fire and taking another stick with meat.  
  
“Want some?” Tony asked, making the stick pass under the Bucky's nose.  
  
\-----  
  
After getting cleaned, and going back to his tent Tony passed near the sleeping group of Americans and their canopies, and saw Pierce with the Book Of The Dead nestled under his arm. Tony stopped to stare at the book, and then back up at Pierce’s sleeping face. Ever so carefully he took the book from Pierce’s clutches, before taking it with him to look at it.  
  
“You sure you want to play around with that?” Bucky’s voice was muffled by the sheet half covering his face.  
  
“It’s only a book,” Tony said, taking the key to open it. “No harm ever comes from a book,” he smiled. In the moment the lock came open the fire flickered, making the two men share a nervous look, before Tony started to read.  
  
“Ahm kum Ra. Ahm kum Dei...” and Tony continued reading aloud in ancient Egyptian.  
  
\-----  
  
Inside the chamber, the Mar-Ga-Ret mummy cracked and twisted in her sarcophagus, following Tony’s voice before snapping open her empty eyes wide and screaming.  
  
\-----  
  
Inside the camp Pierce jolted awake, looking around him in panic, before spotting Tony reading the book.  
  
“NO! NOOOOO! NOOOOOOO! YOU CAN’T!” Pierce screamed, before stopping mid run at a loud whine, that made the entire camp jolt awake.  
  
All the Americans ran out of their tents carrying their firearms, as the sound grew louder, and louder by the minute, before finally revealing a huge wall of locusts moving toward them.  
  
“RUN!” Barnes screamed, taking Tony’s hand and pulling the other man with him toward the entrance of the temple, followed by Clint at their side, trying to avoid Rumlow and the others as they moved.  
  
Pierce stayed, defeated, hugging the Book of The Dead to his chest, while being slowly covered by the locusts.  
  
“What have we done?” was the last he uttered, before being completely covered by the insects.  
  
Inside the temple, Tony, Clint and Barnes continued to run, swatting away locusts from their clothes and hair without looking.  
  
“Did you see that? Locusts, LOCUSTS!!!” Clint wheezed, the moment they stopped, bending in half and trying to regain his breath.  
  
“That’s one of the plagues right? The Locust plague?” Bucky asked, looking between Tony and Clint, and then back to Tony.  
  
“This is not a plague” Tony bit back, offended by the implication. “Every some many years, the locusts of Egypt need to fly away because of an explosion in population,” he said, waving a hand in the air while stepping on something squishy, making them all move their eyes to the floor.  
  
“And what about frogs?” Bucky asked, lighting the floor with his torch. The floor was filled with thousands of slimy frogs. Tony shut his mouth and frowned offended at the floor.  
  
\-----  
  
The Americans ran after the others, scattering around the dig site. Inside the temple Rumlow ran into one of them, before hurrying on, making the man lose his glasses…  
  
“What?” the man started to search for the lost item, but one of his ‘friends’ crushed them under his foot, and ran away without looking around. “My glasses…” the man knelt down to retrieve the now unuseful broken piece, putting them back on his nose.  
  
“Guys?” he tried as he started to walk, with a hand outstretched in front of him. “Guys?” he tried again, the moment he spotted a blurry figure in front of him.  
  
“Rumlow? Is that you?” Because the figure didn’t answer, he tried another name, but nothing, the figure was silent. Not obtaining an answer he took another step, stumbling and moving really slowly, before reaching out toward the figure and letting his hand sink inside the creature’s chest. The man froze in horror, before he jumped back, going to cover his mouth but stopping, seeing how his hands were covered in rotten flesh… He started to scream, but a skeletal hand covered his mouth and his eyes, making everything go black.  
  
\-----  
  
The ground under Tony, Clint and Bucky started to shake, making the three men look at each other, and then at the floor in front of them, where a little sand volcano formed, from which hundreds of chittering scarab beetles came out and moved toward them. Tony and Clint screamed, Bucky started screaming and the three turned around and ran away. Fast, really fast.  
  
They raced through the dimly lit corridors, narrow passages and up the labyrinth staircase, where Barnes jumped up on a pedestal to the side, Clint followed, and Tony jumped in a little grotto on the other side of the staircase. The herd of vicious critters scurried below them, letting out a high pitched screeching that made a shiver pass through Tony’s spine. He leaned against the wall in relief, but with the pressure the wall moved, and Tony fell backward, before the wall went back to its original position.  
  
“Tony?” Clint called, after the horde of scarabs had passed, looking around in search of his little brother, but seeing no trace. “TONY?!?!” he screamed, moving toward where Tony was only few seconds before.  
  
\-----  
   
Tony, grunted the moment his back hit the floor, sending a curse, before standing up and dusting the sand away from his clothes and hair.  
  
“Where the hell am I?” He breathed out, looking around him and moving toward a dim light coming through the ceiling in the pitch black room.  
  
“Hello?” Tony spotted a figure standing in the corridor in front of him. “Hello?” he asked again, moving toward the figure and recognizing one of the Americans. “Oh, thank god,” he breathed out, relieved. “You’re one of the Americans aren’t you?” Tony reached out with a hand just to get the man’s attention but… he started to scream at the sight in front of him, taking a few step back, plastering himself against the wall.  
  
The American was white as a ghost. Both his eyes were missing and the cavities were burned, the tongue was missing as well, drool slipping out of his parted lips, and a few white hairs were now framing his face. This was not the man Tony remembered from before.  
  
“W.. wha… what?!?!?” Tony staggered away, shaking his head in disbelief. New footsteps could be heard, making Tony turn around and scream again. The Mar-Ga-Ret mummy was standing there with two new fresh eyeballs, tilting her putrid head to the side, looking Tony up and down.  
  
“Ste-Phan?” The Mummy asked, taking a step toward Tony with an outstretched hand.  
  
Tony froze, looking around for help, his eyes falling on the American, whispering a little “Help me?”  
  
\-----  
  
Clint and Bucky started to push the wall where Tony had disappeared behind without result.  
  
“Damn! Must be a trap door, or something similar” Barnes grunted disappointed before a scream reached their ears, and the American group came running toward them.  
  
“RUN YOU SON OF A BITCH! RUN!!!!” One of them screamed, followed by the chittering scarabs coming their way.  
  
Clint and Bucky joined the group, followed by one of the diggers who fell on the stairs, and was completely covered and devoured in seconds, screaming frantically. Bucky stopped few seconds to watch in horror, before Clint grabbed his arm and started to pull him away from the scene. Leaving the now skeleton of the digger behind, while the Americans screamed terrified.  
  
\-----  
  
Mar-Ga-Ret stepped forward, making Tony take a step away, while shooting a terrified look again at the other man, who drooled, gurgled and moaned because of his missing tongue. Mar-Ga-Ret grabbed the man and threw him on the floor putting a foot on him, like a predator ready for the kill.  
  
“Kadeesh pharos Ste-Phan!”  
  
Tony shivered in fear, when suddenly Barnes came running from around the corner, right up to him, but stopped. Seeing the look of terror in Tony’s eyes he turned around and froze.  
  
“WHOA”  
  
Barnes, plastered himself at Tony’s side, and both men started to back away down the hall, while Mar-Ga-Ret moved with them, like a tiger cornering her prey with sand swirling around her like a beautiful death dance. Taking advantage of the situation, the man on the floor started to crawl away, making the mummy stop and open her skeletal mouth unnaturally wide. Barnes and Tony didn’t hesitate and ran away.  
  
“STE-PHAN,” the mummy screamed at the two retreating figures, before disappearing in a cloud of sand.  
  
\-----  
  
As Tony and Bucky stumbled out of the ruins, the wind blew up sand,  covering their sight for few seconds, giving some of the warriors in black the chance to step close and point a gun toward their heads. As the sand settled, everything came into sight, revealing to them some of the Americans and Pierce on their knees with their hand crossed behind their head, as well. The woman with fiery red hair chose that moment to step forward.  
  
“I told you to leave or die and you refused,  and now you have unleashed the creature we feared for more than four thousand years. You may have killed all of us,” she said in a cold voice, studying the men in front of her.  
  
“Relax, I got this,” Bucky waved her off, shaking his shoulder.  
  
“I doubt that,” the redhead said. “No mortal weapon can kill this creature, she is not of this world”.  
  
“Are we talking about the same creature? The rotting corpse? Really big mouth and bad breath?” Barnes asked, only obtaining a raised eyebrow from the woman as an answer and complete silence from the others around him. “What?” he asked again, looking around.  
  
\------  
  
Rumlow continued to roam inside the dark corridors of the temple, only lit by the torch in his hand, completely lost. Turning around every corner and passing by every door till he crushed against a rotten corpse…  
  
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” Rumlow screamed, falling on his butt before starting to fire against the corpse in front of him. One shot, two shots... six shots, but every one of them passed through Mar-Ga-Ret, with no effect. Rumlow crawled away against a corner, where he picked up the chain around his neck, filled with various religious symbol, before starting to recite. moving from symbol to symbol, from prayer to prayer.  
  
Mar-Ga-Ret reached for Rumlow’s throat, and started to squeeze, which did not stop the man from continuing his prayers. When he  reached The Star of David and blessed himself in Hebrew, Mar-Ga-Ret miraculously stopped from choking him to death.  
  
“ _The language of the slaves,_ ” the Mummy said in Hebrew, looking up and down at Rumlow. “ _I may have use for you, and the reward will be great._ ” She reached inside her rotten robe to take out a little pile of jewels, making Rumlow’s eyes widen. He fell on the floor again when Mar-Ga-Ret let him go, reaching for Ste-Phan’s broken Canopic jar on the floor.  
  
“Where are the others?”  
  
\-----  
  
Some of the men in black dragged the American with the burned eyes out of the temple , letting him fall on the sand in front of the group.  
  
“You bastards, what the hell have you done to him?” hissed one of the others, taking the man’s arm and helping him on his feet. Horrified by the sight of him.  
  
“We saved him,” the redhead said. “We saved him before the creature could finish his works. Now leave quickly before he finishes all of you.” She turned around as she spoke.  
  
“You’re not killing us?” Clint asked, receiving an elbow right in his side, thanks to Tony.  
  
“We must hunt him now, try to find a way to kill him, before he consumes the earth. Allah be with us”. The redhead said before turning around and moving toward the entrance of the temple.  
  
“I told ya, I already got him,” Barnes said.  
  
Nat stopped at his voice, turning around with a cold look and her voice deadly serious.  
  
“Know this. The creature _will_ come for you. He must consume the curse. And until that, she will never sleep, will never eat and will never stop.” With that she just jumped inside the temple without looking back.


	7. ONE DEATH, TWO DEATHS...

**CHAPTER 7: ONE DEATH, TWO DEATHS...**

  
  
“I thought you didn’t believe in any of this!” Bucky groaned, throwing a suitcase on the floor , and chucking all the clothes inside that were within reach.  
  
“Having an encounter with a thousand years old walking/talking corpse tend to convert anyone,” Tony answered back, pulling the clothes out from the suitcase again and throwing them back on the bed.  
  
“Forget it, we are going away, NOW!” Bucky hissed.  
  
“No we are not!”  
  
“Oh… yes we are,” Bucky said, continuing to throw clothes inside the suitcase while Tony fished them back out.  
  
“I woke him, and I need to stop him!”  
  
Bucky angrily stretched a pair of suspenders with his hand before launching them to the other side of the room.  
  
“How?! You heard that scary woman, no mortal weapon can kill that abomination!” Bucky yelled, raising his hands in the air in frustration.  
  
“Then WE are going to find a way to stop the mummy!” Tony answered, just as determined.  
  
“AH,” Bucky shouted, kicking the suitcase closed. “There is no we here, I’m out of this.” He turned around and moved out of the room, followed by Tony.  
  
“According to the Book, once this creature is reborn this curse will spread and will grow in strength. Infecting the people and spreading until the whole world is dead.” Tony caught Barnes’ hand and made the man turn around.  
  
“Yeah, and? Is that my problem?” Bucky asked angrily.  
  
That statement made Tony stop, incredulous of what he heard, before shaking his head and staring dead serious at the man in front of him.  
  
“It’s everybody’s problem.” Tony whispered, releasing Barnes’ hand and starting to move away.  
  
”Look, I appreciate you saving my life and all,” Barnes stated. “But when I signed on, I agreed to take you out, and back. And I did. Now we're even. End of the job. End of the story. Contract terminated.”  
  
Tony just stared at him, defeated.  
  
“So,” Tony said, his voice shaking. “That’s what I am to you? A contract?”  
  
“Listen,” Barnes started again. Not knowing what to do with the look in the other’s eyes. “You can either tag along with me, or stay here and play around with that abomination.”  
  
Determination took hold of Tony again. “I’m staying.”  
  
Barnes turned around and slammed the door behind him,  making Tony flop on a nearby chair and cover his eyes in defeat.  
  
\-----  
  
After the fight with Tony, fuming with anger and other emotions, Barnes stomped around the compound where their room was situated, only to crush into Rumlow.  
  
“Rumlow,” Barnes gritted out, staring the other man up and down, faking a big smile. “Where the hell have you been?”  
  
“You left in me in the desert to rot,” Rumlow deadpanned. “That’s where I was.”  
  
“Oh yeah, sorry about that” Barnes said, not sorry at all, waving a dismissive hand. “So who is…” he pointed at the figure near Rumlow. Completely covered in a dark hooded robe, with a death mask covering his face.  
  
“This is Princess Mar-Ga-Ret” Rumlow said, bowing his head a little. “High priestess of Osiris”  
  
“Oh, nice to meet you,” Barnes said, extending a hand, while Rumlow just barely put himself in the way, stopping Barnes. “Wha…”  
  
“The princess doesn’t like to be touched by others. A silly eastern superstition, I’m afraid.”  
  
“Yeah, well we all got our little problems today,” Bucky dismissed him, thinking about what happened with Tony. “Well... Priestess.” With a little bow Barnes moved around the two in front of him, ready to reach his original destination. The bar.  
  
\-----  
  
Sitting on a bar stool, sipping a scotch and making the ice cubes in his glass move lazily, Barnes didn't notice a man staring at him from the other side of the room with a frown on his face and his eyes hard. After few minute in complete silence the man decided to move from his seat and reached Barnes, clasping a hand on his shoulder.  
  
“Barnes.” A deep and commanding voice, made him turn around toward the new arrival, just to look at the other man, raising an eyebrow in question. “Lieutenant Colonel James Rupert Rhodes,” the man said. “Last of the Royal force stationed here in this forgotten land, and dear friend of Anthony.” At the mention of Tony’s name, Barnes straightened his back, schooling his features. Rhodes leaned in. “You hurt him, I hurt you. Understand?” A brief nod from Barnes, still speechless, and Rhodes nodded back, taking a deep breath to relax. “Good, now that we know each other, tell me what the hell Tony did this time,” Rhodes asked, shaking his head, and sitting on a chair near the bar.  
  
“Well...” and Barnes started to tell the story, skipping over his and Tony's relationship, or lack thereof.  
  
\-----  
  
“I can’t believe this, I can’t believe it!” Rhodes shook his head, before massaging his temple. “I leave him alone for one week, only one week and Tony goes along and awakes an angry Mummy from his rest... great, just great.” Rhodes sighed, not even a little disturbed by the curse and the Mummy story.  
  
“Mh,” Barnes started uncertain.  
  
“What?” Rhodes asked, raising his head and staring at the other.  
  
“He is always like that?”  
  
“You mean irresponsible, and unable to keep his head out of trouble, then yeah,” Rhodes said. “ It was more manageable before his parents’ deaths, more precisely, his mother's death, she always kept him out danger.” He took a sip of his scotch. “But after her death, everything started to...”  
  
“WHAT THE HELL?!?”  
  
Screams reached their ears. The group of Americans on the other side of the counter started to cough, and spit out what they were drinking looking around them in confusion, making Barnes and Rhodes do the same.  
  
“Sweet Jesus, that tasted like... like...” one of the Americans stammered.  
  
“Blood.” Barnes said as he stared at the fountain situated in the center of the bar, and at the blood red water coming out of it.  
  
“And the rivers and waters of Egypt went red and were as blood.” Clint who just entered the bar added, staring at the blood in front of him. Making the men in the bar shiver.  
  
“She is here,” Barnes mumbled in realization.  
  
“The guy, the priestess, the mummy!!!” He sprinted out of the bar, running toward Tony’s room. Pushing away every person that stood in the way and not . looking back.  
  
“Tony! TONYYYY!!!!”  
  
Tony stepped into the courtyard, carrying a lot of book, when a blast of thunder and Bucky’s scream, made him jump and drop some of the books on the floor.  
  
“Damn,” Tony hissed, bowing down pick  them up, when Barnes hand took him back spinning around.  
  
“We have a problem,” Barnes panted, when a barrage of hail and fire came down on the courtyard, making both men jump and run under the eaves, while around them objects started to catch fire.  
  
“She is here! I saw her! That abomination is here!!!”  
  
“The creature? Are you sure?” Tony asked, now interested in what Barnes wanted to say.  
  
Barnes raised an eyebrow and pointed at the ball of fire crushing on them.  
  
“Pretty sure, yeah.”  
  
The hail and the fire came to a stop and at the same moment a blood curdling scream was heard, coming from the living quarters, making both men run toward the scream, while a screaming servant ran away from the Americans room.  
Reaching their destination, the group, now composed of Tony, Bucky, Rhodes and Clint entered the room only to find a body shriveled to half its size while Mar-Ga-Ret was regenerating. Thick skin began to cover the putrid one. Tendons quivered. Her bones structure reformed, and the once beautiful and full face started to fill again, before her mouth opened and an inhuman scream came out, making everything stop.  
  
“We are in serious trouble,” Barnes whispered taking a step back, at the same time he took the guns out.  
  
Mar-Ga-Ret started to move toward Tony extending a hand.  
  
“Back off you creep!” Barnes hissed, moving between the Mummy and Tony.  
  
But Mar-Ga-Ret didn’t stop, and Barnes opened fire, blasting an entire clip through the Mummy’s body without damaging anything. Barnes stepped forward and punched the creature in the face, only to see his hand go through the skull, and remaining with his hand stuck inside the Mummy face.  
  
“What the hell?!?!” Barnes said disgusted yanking his hand back, and leaving a hole in his place. Hole that began to degenerate right down to the bones.  
  
Mar-Ga-Ret grabbed Barnes by the neck, lifting the man from the floor and throwing him to the other side of the room, right into Clint, making both men fall.  
  
“ _You saved me from the undead. For this, I shall make you immortal._ ” Mar-Ga-Ret started moving toward Tony, ready to kiss him, when a white cat appeared, jumping on the piano and hissing at the rotten corpse. Making the Mummy shriek and disappear in a blast of wind and sand outside of the window. Gone.  
  
Tony, Barnes, Clint and Rhodes stood there transfixed. One of the Americans kneeled beside the body of his friend, horrified.  
  
“The curse,” he whispered, looking up at the group in the room.  
  
“There’s only one person I know that can give us the answer,” Tony blurted out after few minutes of silence, breaking the gloomy air in the room and capturing everyone's eyes. “The Curator,” he announced, like that single word meant something to the others.  
  
\-----  
  
Moving inside the dimly lit corridor of the museum where it all started, the group, composed of Tony, Barnes, Clint, Rhodes and the Americans rounded a corner to stop in front of the open door of the curator’s office, where the man was talking to the redhead the group fought in the desert.  
  
“YOU!” The group, sanse Rhodes, screamed, pointing their fingers at the woman.  
  
Dr. Yinsen, seeing the group, bowed his head a little in greeting, while Barnes and the Americans drew their guns.  
  
“Mister Stark. Gentlemen,” Yinsen greeted the group.  
  
“Why she is here?” Tony asked, moving his eyes from the curator to the woman, and back again.  
  
“Do you really wish to know? Or do you prefer to just shoot us?” Yinsen asked in a deadpan voice, pointing at the chairs behind them, making everybody tense up.  
  
“After seeing my fist vanishing into some creature’s head, I’m willing to go on a little faith here.” Barnes put away his gun, followed by the others after a few seconds.  
  
“You will not believe me,” Yinsen said.  
  
Tony took a step forward. “Try me.”  
  
With a deep sigh, the curator raised from his seat and moved out of the office, heading toward the Ramses room.  
  
“We are part of an ancient secret society, called ‘ _the cult-of-the-Mumia_ ’, and we have a sacred mission, passed down through thirty-nine generations. For over four thousand years we have guarded The City Of The Dead. We are sworn to do any and all in our power to stop the Highest Priestess Mar-Ga-Ret from being reborn into this world.”  
  
“And because of you, we have failed.” The redhead added, standing on high alert near the curator.  
  
“And you think this justifies killing people?” Tony asked, disgusted at the idea.  
  
“To have stopped the creature? YES!”  
  
“Okay, let’s cut the chat. It is afraid of cats, why?” Barnes asked, crossing his arms over his chest.  
  
“According to the ancients, cats are the guardians of the gates of hell. Mar-Ga-Ret will fear them until she is fully regenerated. After that nothing will stop her.”  
  
At that one of the Americans looked at Barnes and then at the curator.  
  
“Yeah. And you know how she gets fully regenerated?” he asked, taking a deep breath, before pointing at himself and his friend. “By killing everybody who opened that chest and sucking us dry! That’s how!” He covered his face in fear, shaking slightly .  
  
“Yes.” Yinsen replied, his voice flat. “The creature must first try to regenerate, and then attempt to resurrect the one she loved for more than four thousand years.” He closed his eyes and shook his head in defeat.  
  
“Ste-Phan,” Tony whispered, making the redhead and Yinsen look at him, thunderstruck. At the sudden attention Tony took a step back. “In the necropolis when I saw her alive, and walking, she called me Ste-Phan. And then in Mister…” Tony pointed at the Americans in the room, not remembering the name, because he never asked the name. “Anyway in the living quarter, she tried to kiss me,” he shrugged.  
  
“It’s because it was you, who read from the book.” Yinsen said, raising from his temporary seat. “She chose you to be the human sacrifice needed to regenerate Ste-Phan’s body.” His face lighted up at the news.  
  
“This is not good,” Clint stated after few minutes in complete silence. “Not good at all.” He shook his head and stared at his brother in concern.  
  
“Natasha?” Dr. Yinsen called the redhead standing near the window.  
  
“Tonight is full moon. The moon of Osiris. It begins tonight.” Natasha stated, making everyone turn around to look at what she was looking at, only to see a full eclipse forming.  
  
“...and he stretched forth his hands towards the heavens, and there was darkness throughout the land of Egypt.” Clint recited in complete awe, staring at the sun disappear behind the moon.  
  
\-----  
  
Barnes stared out of the window, at the black sun above them, while Tony and Clint paced around the room.  
  
“We need to stop her,” Tony stated, turning around to stare at the two Americans. “Who opened the chest?” He asked, moving his eyes between the two men.  
  
The two stared at each other. “Us, Burns and Pierce”. At the raised eyebrow they received “The one already dead,” one of them added.  
  
“What about my buddy, Rumlow?” Barnes asked, moving away from the window.  
  
“Nah, he ran away.”  
  
“Typical.”  
  
“We need to find Pierce and bring him here.” Tony added, looking at the men in front of him.  
  
“Okay,” Barnes said. “Tony, you stay here. He pointed at the Americans. ”You two, come with me.” Clint sighed and Tony started to scream.  
  
“Who put you in charge? You can’t leave me behind like some old suitcase! I’m the one responsible for this mess and I intend to be the one to solve it!”  
  
Barnes sighed and shook his head. Then moved to take Tony over his shoulder, lifting the man like he weighed nothing, and marching inside Tony’s room, to toss said man on the bed and march out, closing the door behind him with the key.  
  
“I’m staying here,” Rhodes voice reached the group, making them turn and stare at him. “I know how his brain works, and all the possible escape routes he could take.” He gave a little nod at Barnes, who nodded back.  
  
“You’re with me,” he pointed at Clint. After that he marched out of the room, in search of Rumlow, leaving Tony banging at the door and Rhodes sighing and sitting on the chair near the same door, with a little smile playing on his lips.  
  
“Don’t work with me Tones, you know that.” Rhodes whispered, hearing a loud grunt and some stomping before silence filled the room.  
  
\-----  
  
Inside the Egyptologist office, Rumlow was rummaging inside the drawer, pulling out files and various objects, throwing some of them on the floor, and putting others in his pocket.  
  
“Well, well, well, what have we here.” Barnes voice filled the silence, making Rumlow turn around and smile at the other, before turning back again to run toward the window. “I don’t think so,” Barnes groaned, taking a chair and throwing it at the other, making Rumlow stumble and crush against the wall before falling on the floor. Barnes moved over, taking Rumlow by the hair. “Where’s your new friend?” He asked without turning around.  
  
“What friend? You are my only friend.”  
  
“Don’t,” Barnes started sliding a blade under Rumlow chin. “Because if I’m your only friend, then you don’t have any excuse to run away from me, right? What do you think you are doing? Being friends with that monster.” Barnes shook his head. “What’s in it for you then?” He slightly tilted Rumlow’s head toward him.  
  
“It’s better be the right hand of the devil than being in her way. As long as I serve her, I’m immune.” Rumlow said, trying to free his head from Barnes’ hands.  
  
“Immune from what?”  
  
“You will see.”  
  
“Lie and I will slice your throat,” Barnes hissed, shoving the knife deeper in Rumlow skin, making the skin under turn red..  
  
“The book!” Rumlow blurted out. “The black book they found at Hamunaptra! Mar-Ga-Ret wants it back. She said it would be worth its weight in diamonds.”  
  
“And what does she wants from the book?”  
  
“Something about bringing her ex boyfriend back to life, or something like that,” he shrugged, “and your brother.” Rumlow said, looking at Clint with a wicked smile on his face.  
  
With the new information Clint and Barnes shared a look, taking their eyes away from Rumlow, who took the opportunity to kick Barnes in the crotch before sprinting away toward the window and jumping out. Leaving Barnes, doubling and collapsing on the floor, and Clint cringe in sympathy.  
  
“That looks painful.”  
  
“You know,” Barnes grunted, trying to get back on his feet. “Since I know you, my luck has been for craps.” Ended finally on his feet, and moving toward the exit.  
  
“Yes, I know,” Clint shrugged. “I do that to people.” They started to move, when a blood wrenching scream came from the bazar under them, making both men run toward the window and look at the dried corpse of the egyptologist fall on the floor.  
  
A partially rotten hand came out from under the dirty robe to pick a canopic jar from Pierce’s hand, revealing Mar-Ga-Ret’s twisted face under the hood, even more regenerated than before. With a twisted smile she opened her mouth unnaturally wide, letting a huge swarm of flies come out and move toward Barnes and Clint. The men slammed the window closed, just in time to hear the insects crush on the outside and people scream in the street below them.  
  
“Damn! That’s two down and only two to go.” Barnes groaned massaging his temple.  
  
“And she will come for Tony.” Clint whispered, rolling the words in his head.  
  
“...”  
  
“Oh fuck!”  
  
And like that, both men turned and sprinted out of the door toward the British Fort, and toward Tony.  
  
\-----  
  
“Ten O’Clock and all's well!”  
  
A soldier yelled on the other side of the wall a soldier voice, making Rhodes groan and stretch.  
  
“I’m going to take something to eat, anyone wants something?” He asked turning around toward the two Americans in the room with him.  
  
“Nothing, thanks.”  
  
“A glass of bourbon, thanks.”  
  
Came the answer at the same time, making Rhodes laugh.  
  
“Ok, only a bourbon and some food for me and for Tony inside,” He said, starting to move toward the door before stopping midway and turning around. “He should be sleeping, but keep your eyes on the door.” With that he was out, going to fetch food and beverage.  
  
“You know what? Fuck it, I’m going to get something to drink too.” And with that one of the remaining men was out of the door without giving this friend any time to say anything at all, who sat just chilling on one of the armchairs, smoking a cigar.  
  
A few minutes passed, when a gust of wind broke into the room, making the man turn around and stare at the fluttering curtains. The man, one of the Americans, Handerson stood up to move and close the window, when sand suddenly hit him in the face, making the man stumble back and trip on a nearby table, before being lifted from the floor and his body started to twist as life left him, sucked out of his body, making the corpse fall on the floor without a sound.  
  
“Ste-Phan,” a raspy voice emerged from the sand that whirled around in the room, forming a now nearly completed body, and Mar-Ga-Ret emerged with a little grin on her now, full and plush lips.  
  
Behind closed door, Tony was sleeping unaware of what was happening on the other side.  
  
The door knob shook, the door rattled and sand started to pour inside the room, through the keyhole. Fine sand, that fell on the floor without a sound before reshaping into the woman.  
  
“ _My love._ ” Mar-Ga-Ret whispered reaching out and touching Tony’s sleeping face, tracing the contour of lips before bowing down and kiss Tony, slowly and tender, when her lips started to degenerate again, revealing a rotten corpse.  Tony woke up and stared in front of him, his round eyes full of fear.  
  
“TONY!” A scream reach both their ears, and the doors slammed open, revealing Barnes and Clint running inside, stopping the mummy in her action. “Get away from my man, you stinky rotten corpse,” Barnes hissed.  
  
 Mar-Ga-Ret’s face turned into one of pure anger as she started to spin, ready to crush against Barnes.  
  
“I figured you might be here so I brought a friend with me,” and like that he shoved the white cat in his arms in the Mummy’s face, making her scream and disappear outside the window in a whirl of sand and dust. Again.  
  
After few seconds Bucky moved toward Tony, helping the other on his feet after falling on the floor Tony started to wipe his lips, grimacing in disgust. In the same moment one of the other Americans, Daniels, and Rhodes came back from the bar, finding complete chaos and Handerson’s dried body on the floor.  
  
\-----  
  
The next day found them in a car, on their way to the museum. Clint raced through the small streets of Cairo honking constantly. Tony moved his eyes between Barnes, Clint and Rhodes nervously, before moving back to look at Barnes, tilting his head.  
  
“Before,” Tony started, “you called me your man.” He raised an eyebrow at the Barnes.  
  
“What? Oh… that… that was just a figure of speech, you know?” Barnes blurted out, starting to blush.  
  
“No, I think you were jealous.” Tony said narrowing his eyes.  
  
“Jealous? Are you kidding me? Did you see that girl’s face?”  
  
With the bickering in front of him, Daniels, the last of the Americans alive, leaned forward stopping the little conversation.  
  
“Shut up! JUST SHUT UP!” He nearly screamed, completely filled with fear. “We need to do something, NOW! Before it’s too late.”He fell back in his seat while Clint entered in the driveway of the museum


	8. The Beginning of The End

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I totaly forgot to post this chapter... but i think no one even cares... anyway, no i didn't forget this story i think i'm working on the last chapter but is not easy.

**CHAPTER 8: The Beginning of The End**

  
  
A full moon shone through the bazar, still lively with people when an ominous mist started to spread and the people began to cough, choke and retch, falling on the street unconscious.  
  
In a dark alley, the hooded figure of Mar-Ga-Ret strolled through the dead bodies followed by Rumlow., After her passage the bodies started to rise and follow her like mindless puppets, chanting her name like a prayer.

  
\-----

  
Barnes, Clint, Rhodes, Daniels the curator and Natasha, followed Tony through the corridor of the museum in silence.  
  
“Last month, I found a encryption that mentioned The Book of the Dead.”  
  
“The book we found in Hamunaptra?” Daniels asked.  
  
“The same.” Tony continued talking while walking. “But I dismissed it, because it talked about bringing back people from the dead. A notion at time I wasn’t ready to believe in.”  
  
“Believe it, doll” Barnes said.  
  
“Because that’s how it’s going to bring back its boyfriend,” Clint added, interrupting the other mid sentence, and receiving a raised eyebrow.  
  
“And if it succeeds, then the two together will bring the apocalypse upon us,” Natasha ended.  
  
“But you see,” Yinsen joined Tony at his side. “What we have seen so far, is only Mar-Ga-Ret flexing her muscles. And only at Ste-Phan’s resurrection will she bring true destruction upon us, and be indestructible.”  
  
Reaching the case Tony wanted, he opened the glass door with caution.  
  
“I was thinking if The Book of the Dead can bring people to life…”  
  
“The Book of the Living can return them to the underworld.” Yinsen concluded, staring at the other.  
  
“Exactly.”  
  
“So you think if we find this book made of gold...”  
  
“...And read the sacred incantation written on it,” the Curator continued.  
  
“You think it’ll send the creature back to hell?”  
  
“Exactly.”  
  
At that moment a loud chanting reached their ears, making all men run toward the window to spot a large crowd gathered outside the museum’s gate. Chanting a name. “Ste-Phan, Ste-Phan, Ste-Phan.”  
  
“It has begun,” Natasha said. “The beginning of the End.”  
  
“Not yet, no. C’mon.” Tony said before rushing back to the case followed by the others. He started to sort through all the pieces of the broken stone tablets, till he pulled out a bigger piece, sporting a large smile on his face. “Got it!” Tony announced, all happy.  
  
“Got what?” Yinsen asked, as the banging against the door got louder, and louder by the minute. Multiple windows shattered, as Tony whispered, quietly translating the tablet.  
  
“Since the Book of the Dead was found inside the statue of Anubis” Tony raised a hand to stop everyone from talking. “According to this, the golden Book of the Living is found inside…”  
  
“Where?  
  
“Where?”  
  
“Where?  
  
“WHERE?”  
  
“The golden Book of the Living is inside the statue of Koz-Us.” Tony grinned proud of him.  
  
“Which would be located not far from the Anubis one.”  
  
“Don’t tell me we gotta go back out there?!?” Barnes groaned covering his face in defeat.  
  
“If we want to kill the creature, yes.” The curator ended the discussion, turning around and moving down the stairs just at the moment when two hideous men came crashing into them.  
  
“DAMN!” Barnes hissed, taking one of them and launching the man down the stairs, followed by the one kicked by Natasha. When the doors suddenly burst open and the crazed mob poured inside. “Oh shit.” And like that the whole group turned around and ran in the opposite direction, trying to leave the museum as fast as possible.  
  
Clint sneaked out of some bushes and quickly moved toward his car, but a group of the diseased people came around a corner and Clint froze. Thinking quick, he bulged out his eyes and drooled to blend in the chaos, even starting the chant only for the time to reach his car.  
  
“Ste-Phan, Ste-Phan.” Clint chanted, and the moment his car was by his side, he jumped in and started the engine, actually driving over some people. “MOVE!” Clint screamed the moment he was in front of the side door, to urge the others to come out and jump in the car.  
  
The same moment the car sped out of the museum gate, Mar-Ga-Ret looked out from one of the windows of the museum and let out a horrific scream. This made all the infected people pour out of the doors like a swollen river. People started to follow the group outside and through the narrow streets of the bazaar under the full moon.  
  
The car sped through the small streets, with the group packed inside and Clint in the driver seat, when people started to jump on the car, arms stretched to pick Daniels and Tony from their seats, but Barnes and Natasha were able to kick them back out. As more people came toward them without stopping Daniels was yanked out of his seat and dragged out toward Mar-Ga-ret who slowly reached for the man to complete her regeneration.  
  
A blood curdling scream reached the group, making the blood in their veins freeze, a dark laugh followed it.  
  
“She has the jar, and is now regenerating,” Yinsen hissed, turning around in time to watch Mar-Ga-Ret’s hood fall down and reveal her beautiful face.  
  
“She looks like aunt Peggy…” Tony whispered, as the car screeched and crashed into a wall, making all of them nearly fly out of the vehicle. “What was that?” Tony hissed, turning around to stare at his brother, who started to roll out of his car seat and into the street.  
  
“We don’t have time for this shit,” Barnes groaned. “Now run, run, run!” He grabbed Tony by the arm and pulled the other with him, in hopes of escaping the horde.  
But the flight was short, the big mob of people surrounded them, stopping their movement and closing all of their possible escape routes.  
  
“Shit!” Barnes groaned, and reached behind him in his gun sacks for a stick of dynamite and a lighter, ready to fire it, at the same moment that the mob started chanting and opening up to let Mar-Ga-Ret reach the group, followed by a smug Rumlow.  
  
“Totally like aunt Pegs,” Tony whispered.  
  
“Oh, shit… you are right” Clint’s voice came a second later, tinged with awe and fascination, mixed with a little bit of disgust.  
  
After the comment, Bucky just turned to give Tony a look, but in the same moment his lighter burned his finger, making him drop it. Another one appeared in front of his face, thanks to Natasha who gave Barnes a stern look, before shaking her head and turning around.  
  
“She has consummated the curse,” Yinsen stated, “Now all she needs to do is raise Ste-Phan from the dead. Then it will be the end of us, and the beginning of them.” When he finished  Mar-Ga-Ret stepped forward.  
  
Beautiful and deadly, she reached out with her hand, while Barnes lighted up the dynamite ready to blow everything up. Mar-Ga-Ret stopped to stare at him with curious eyes, while the fuse burned and nearly reached its end. At the last moment Tony blew  the flame out, making the woman smile brightly toward Tony and reach out her hand.  
  
“Koontash dai na.”  
  
At the words, Rumlow stepped forward, beside the creature.  
  
“She says,” Rumlow cleared his voice and straightened his back. “Take her hand, and she will spare the others,” He ended, bowing a little.  
  
Tony hesitated a little, before turning around to scan the crowd around them, moving to look at Mar-Ga-Ret, his look confident and steady, before his gaze fell on Barnes, and all the group behind him.  
  
Barnes shrugged at him, looking at Tony who shrugged as well.  
  
“Sorry, nothing.”  
  
Groaning at the answer Tony took a deep breath, turned around and extended his hand toward Mar-Ga-Ret, when Barnes, Clint and Rhodes moved to stop him but were stopped by Natasha who stepped between them, shaking her head firmly.  
  
“Don’t do it doll,” Barnes whispered shaking his head.  
  
“I have no other choice,” Tony stated, reaching out to grab Mar-Ga-Ret’s hand with his sweaty and trembling hand., The creature closed her hand around his smiled.  
  
“Keetah mi pharos, aja nilo, isirlan.“  
  
“Come with me my prince. It is time to make you mine, forever.” Rumlow stepped forward again, translating what the mummy said, only to receive a nasty look from Tony.  
  
“All eternity you idiot,” Tony groaned, turning again toward Barnes, and giving him his best looks. “You better think of something, because if she turns me into a mummy, you are gonna be the first I’m hunting.”  
  
Barnes, almost smiled at that.  
  
“You got guts doll.”  
  
“I know and I want to keep them,” Tony said, and in that moment Mar-ga-ret noticed something in Clint’s pocket and reached to grab the key, literally ripping his pocket to shreds.  
  
“HEY THAT’S MINE!” Clint started to move forward, but Natasha stopped him, with a firm hold of his arm.  
  
“Tony…” Barnes started to move as well, without even thinking, before Natasha grabbed him with her other arm and pulled him back.  
  
“Be calm. There is time, We can stop her yet.” The redhead kept her firm hold on the two men.  
  
And like Mar-Ga-Ret disappeared just like appeared minute before, with a parting crowd.  
  
“Pared Oos.” Mar-Ga-Ret announced in a cold voice, making Tony scream and Rumlow grin.  
  
“NOOOOOOOO!”  
  
“KILL THEM!” Rumlow said smiling, starting to follow his new master.  
  
Barnes freed himself from Natasha’s grip, stumbling and falling on the floor while screaming Tony’s name, seeing the man disappear into a sea of people. Once they were out of sight he rabbid launched themselves, ready for the kill.  
  
“DOWN!” Barnes screamed from his position on the floor after opening a cistern cover, shoving Clint and Rhodes inside before jumping after them.  
  
Yinsen pushed Natasha inside the hole.  
  
“Go! Find a way! Kill the creature!” Yinsen said, starting to move towards the crowd, with the dynamite in one hand and in the other the lighter.

  
\-----

  
After a few hours, Barnes, Clint, Rhodes and Natasha crawled their way out of the sewer and back into a deserted alley, on the other side of the city.  
  
“We gotta get him back.” Barnes announced, the moment his feet touch cleaned ground.  
  
“I’m with you man” Clint breath out, “nobody touches my brother like that and gets away with it.”  
  
Barnes looked at Natasha.  
  
“You know where she is taking him.”  
  
“Yes,” Natasha said without much emotion. “To Hamunaptra. To perform the ritual.”  
  
“And what ritual that would be?” Clint asked after a bit of silence, crossing his arms over his chest waiting.  
  
“The ritual to bring Ste-Phan back to life.”  
  
“And how does this work?”  
  
“By reading the Book of Dead”  
  
“Of course.”  
  
“And killing your brother.” Natasha said to Clint.  
  
“EXCUSE ME?” Clint blurted out, in a high pitched voice, completely ignored by Natasha who turned around to look at Barnes.  
  
“Mar-Ga-Ret is now able to travel across the desert easily.”  
  
“Sorry,” Clint started again tapping Natasha on the shoulder. “You just said killing my brother?”  
  
“If she arrives before us, it will be too late.” Natasha announced, still looking at Barnes and ignoring Clint words.  
  
Rhodes just smiled, moving toward the group.  
  
“I know how to beat her.” Rhodes announced, pointing at the little ensign pinned on his coat, making Barnes and Clint smile, and Natasha look confused.  
  
\-----  
  
“Are we sure this is safe?” Clint asked from where he was. strapped with a rope to the left wing of the plane, while Natasha was strapped to the right side, smiling. Barnes sat in the back seat, enjoying the sight.  
  
“Hang on man,” Rhodes said without answering, smiling before starting the engine, ready to fly and save his best friend from this mess.


End file.
